Anketell,  1883-1929. 


Lies 


LIES! 


LIES! 


7  BY    THE    REV. 

G.  A.  STUDDERT  KENNEDY 

M.A.,    M.C. 

(WOODBINE  WILLIE) 

AUTHOR    OF 
ROUGH    RHYMES    OF   A    PADRE,"    "ROUGH    TALES    OF    A    PADRE ' 
'more   ROUGH    RHYMES   OF   A    PADRE,"    "THE    HARDEST    PART' 


NEW  YORK 

GEORGE    H.    DORAN 


Madt  a»^  Printed  in  Great  Britain. 
Batett,  Watson  &  Viney,  Li.,  London  and  AyUsbwy* 


BeMcatlon 

TO  ALL  THOSE  WHO  FEEL  THAT  THE  TITLE  IS 
AN  EXACT  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  CONTENTS, 
THIS  BOOK  IS  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED  IN 
THE  HOPE  THAT  A  SECOND  READING  MAY 
LEAD  THEM  TO  THINK  OTHERWISE. 


CONTENTS 


The  Book  of  Broken  Dreams  .        .        .        , 

1 

The  Plague  OF  Lies.                 .        .        .        . 

11 

The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution    . 

24 

Street  Corner  Lies 

36 

Lies  and  Liberty 

48 

Lies  and  Equality 

61 

The  Lie  of  Lust       .         .                 .         .         , 

75 

Democracy  and  Human  Sin      . 

.      85 

Lies  and  the  Love  of  God        .        .        .        , 

.       99 

Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion    . 

.     116 

Lies  and  Nature               

,     137 

Lies  and  History                      .        .        .        , 

.     156 

Lies  and  the  Bible                    .        •        .        , 

.     169 

Lies  and  Drugs                                 • 

.     198 

Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal              .        .        * 

.    215 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

It  is  an  unsatisfactory  business  this  book. 
I  feel  rather  Hke  a  man  driven  desperate  by 
midges  on  a  summer's  day.  This  post-war 
world  is  black  with  lies — biting  and  buzzing 
round  everything.  This  wretched  thing  is 
too  small  to  do  much  damage,  and  it  must 
be  spoiled  by  all  the  biting  I  have  suffered  as 
I  wrote  it.  The  only  way  to  write  pure  truth 
in  these  days  would  be  to  write  nothing  but 
prayers.  But  people  are  so  bitten  with  lies 
that  they  have  lost  the  taste  for  pure  prayers. 
If  one  gets  near  enough  to  God,  lies  don't 
matter,  they  are  harmless ;  but  it  is  the 
getting  to  God.  There  are  so  many  poor  un- 
fortunate beggars  that  cannot  see  any  God 
for  this  cloud  of  lies.     We  must  get  out  of  it 

and  get  to  God  or Well,  I  do  not  know 

what  is  coming,  but  it  is  going  to  be  some- 
thing awful.  There's  a  bad  smell  about — 
a  very  bad  smell ;   it  is  like  the  smell  of  the 

Dead — ^it  is  the  smell  of  dead  souls,     I  can 

ix 
1* 


X  Introduction 


smell  hell.  If  only  men  could  smell  once  more 
the  lilies  that  grew  by  the  Empty  Tomb  ! 
They  must — they  are  there.  In  the  future 
there  must  be,  not  death,  but  Resurrection. 
Get  to  work  and  bury  the  Dead — bury  the 
dead,  and  make  room  for  the  living.  There 
are  too  many  lies.  I  only  know  one  sure 
and  certain  refuge.  I  find  it  on  my  knees. 
But  that  is  selfish — or  is  it  ?  Perhaps  one 
ought  to  pray  and  not  write.  But  I  must 
write.  Why  don't  people  pray  ?  That  is 
the  only  real  weapon.  There  are  a  lot  of 
prayers  worked  into  this.  It  may  do  some 
good.  God  grant  it  does  no  harm.  If  you 
think  it  will,  pray  that  it  may  not,  and  then 
write  and  curse  me.     It  may  help. 


G.  A.  STUDDERT  KENNEDY. 


St.  Paul's  Vicarage, 
Worcester, 
Oct.  1.  1919. 


THE  BOOK  OF  BROKEN  DREAMS 

The  Bible  is  in  one  way  the  saddest  book 
in  the  world.  Its  supremest  beauty  is  the 
beauty  of  its  broken  dreams.  ''  Comfort  ye, 
comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your  God.  Speak 
ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  say  unto 
her  that  her  warfare  Is  accomplished,  that 
her  iniquity  is  pardoned  :  for  she  hath  re- 
ceived at  the  Lord's  hand  double  for  all  her 
sins."  The  words  thrill  one  down  the  ages 
with  their  beauty  of  courage  and  hope  ;  but  it 
is  a  heart-rending  beauty  when  one  compares 
the  dream  with  the  reality  of  history.  Peace, 
Prosperity,  and  Comfort  were  always  coming 
to  the  Holy  City,  but  they  never  came. 
There  is  only  one  Bible  prophecy  about 
Jerusalem  that  ever  found  literal  fulfilment, 
and  that  was  uttered  by  One  greater  than  the 
prophets,  in  a  voice  all  choked  with  tears  : 

O  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets, 
and  stonest  them  that  are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thy  children,  even  as  a  hen 

I 


2  Lies  I 

gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would 
not! 

Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate.  If  thou 
hadst  known,  even  thou,  in  this  thy  day,  the  things 
which  belong  unto  thy  Peace  !  but  now  they  are  hid  from 
thine  eyes.  For  the  days  shall  come  upon  thee  that  thine 
enemies  shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee,  and  compass  thee 
round,  and  keep  thee  in  on  every  side,  and  shall  lay  thee 
even  with  the  ground ;  and  they  shall  not  leave  in  thee 
one  stone  upon  another  ;  because  thou  knewest  not  the 
time  of  thy  visitation. 

That  was  the  end  of  the  prophet's  dream, 
a  dreary  ruin  and  a  silence  only  broken  by 
the  wailing  of  his  people  outside  their 
shattered  walls.  The  dream  was  broken 
on  the  rocks  of  History.  So  it  is  with  all 
the  Bible's  fairest  dreams,  when  one  faces 
facts.  Hundreds  of  books  have  been  written 
to  show  how  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  ; 
very  ingenious  books  which  juggle  about 
with  figures,  and  play  with  arbitrary  rules 
to  prove  that  the  writer  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel  knew  about  Napoleon.  They  all 
seem  to  me  to  be  a  jumble  of  pathetic  non- 
sense. The  truth  about  Bible  prophecy  is 
that  it  has  never  yet  come  true.  It  remains 
to   be    fulfilled.     God's    golden    age   lies    on 


The  Book  of  Broken  Dreams 


ahead.  I  wish  some  one,  instead  of  being 
content  with  playing  with  figures  and  the 
number  of  the  Beast,  could  make  it  come  to 
pass  that  "  they  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in 
all  My  holy  mountain,  saith  the  Lord,  for  the 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea/'  When  ?  When 
is  it  coming  True  ?  Is  it  ever  coming  True  ? 
Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast — 
and  a  good  thing  too,  or  history  would  have 
killed  it  centuries  ago.  But  history  cannot 
kill  hope.  That  is  the  wonderful  part  of  it. 
We  have  just  been  through  another  Hell, 
and  we  are  at  it  again,  dreaming  dreams 
and  seeing  visions,  a  new  Britain,  a  new 
Europe,  a  new  World,  and  Peace,  lasting  Peace. 
The  air  is  full  of  dreams.  Will  they  ever 
come  true  ? 

Peace  we  were  pledged,  yet  blood  is  ever  flowing : 
Where  on  the  earth  has  ever  Peace  been  found  ? 

Men  do  but  reap  the  harvest  of  their  sowing, 
Sadly  the  songs  of  human  reapers  sound. 

Sad  as  the  wind  that  sweeps  across  the  ocean, 
TeUing  to  earth  the  sorrow  of  the  sea. 

Vain  is  my  strife,  just  empty  idle  motion, 
All  that  has  been  is  all  there  is  to  be. 


4  Lies ! 

So  on  the  earth  the  time-waves  beat  and  thunder, 
Bearing  wrecked  hopes  upon  their  heavdng  breasts, 

Bits  of  dead  dreams  and  true  hearts  torn  asunder. 
Flecked  with  red  foam  upon  their  crimson  crests. 

Will  history  repeat  itself,  and  bring  our 
dreams  to  ruin  on  the  rocks  of  time  ?  History 
is  so  utterly  merciless  about  War.  We  in 
Britain  were  accustomed  to  think  of  the 
nineteenth  century  as  a  time  of  progress, 
prosperity,  and  peace.  That  was  a  com- 
fortable lie.  The  facts  turn  me  sick.  The 
real  nineteenth  century  was  just  a  shambles. 
There  was  War  in  the  world  regularly  every 
four  years.  I  carried  the  facts — the  dry  facts 
of  history — out  to  France  in  1915.  I  was 
always  interested  in  military  history.  Yes, 
that's  the  word,  interested.  I  was  just 
interested  because  I  knew  nothing.  Battles 
were  just  the  movements  on  the  chess-board 
of  the  world  to  me.  I  was  as  innocent,  as 
fatuously,  idiotically  innocent  as  most  young 
men  of  my  generation.  I  carried  the  interest- 
ing facts  into  my  first  battle,  and  there  they 
came  to  life,  they  roared  and  thundered, 
they  dripped  with  blood,  they  cursed, 
mocked,  blasphemed,  and  cried  like  a  child 


The  Book  of  Broken  Dreams  5 

for  mercy.  They  stood  up  before  me  like 
obscene  spectres,  beckoning  with  bloody 
hands,  laughing  like  fiends  at  my  little 
parochial  rehgion,  and  my  silly  parochial 
God.  I  can  remember  running  over  an  open 
space  under  shell-fire  trying  madly  to  fit 
in  the  dates,  and  every  shrieking  shell  kept 
yelling  at  me  with  foul  oaths  :  Now  do  you 
understand,  you  miserable  little  parson  with 
your  petty  shibboleths,  this  is  W — A — R — 
War,  and  History  is  War — and  this  is  what 
History  means.  How  about  gentle  Jesus, 
God  the  Father,  and  the  Peace  of  God — how 
about  it  ?  I  saw  the  face  of  Christ  in  His 
agony,  and  remembered  some  Sunday  School 
children  singing  in  shrill  childish  voices  : 

Peace  on  earth  and  mercy  mild, 
God  and  sinners  reconciled. 

Then  I  found  the  man  I  was  looking  for, 
and  stopped  thinking.  But  as  I  think  again 
of  the  nineteenth-century  W^ars  it  all  comes 
back  to  me.  It  isn't  this  War,  it  is  History 
in  the  light  of  this  War  that  we  Christians 
have  to  face.  Here  is  the  case  in  a  nutshell. 
Does    God    will    War  ?     Is    it    part    of    His 


6  Lies  I 

mysterious  plan  ?  Are  the  Militarist  his- 
torians right  ?  I  answer :  *'  If  God  wills 
War,  then  I  am  morally  mad,  and  I  don't 
know  good  from  evil/'  War  is  the  most 
obviously  wicked  thing  I  know.  If  God 
wills  War  then  I  am  not  an  atheist,  I  am 
an  anti-theist.  I  am  against  God.  I  hate 
Him.  Does  God  hate  War  ?  Does  He  will 
its  abolition  ?  Does  He  will  Peace  on  earth  ? 
Does  God  will  that  the  Bible's  broken  dreams 
come  true  ?  That  to  me  is  an  obvious 
Truth — the  first  one.  Why  doesn't  He  make 
them  come  True  then  ?  Because  He  can't 
without  our  willing  co-operation — that  is  to 
me  another  obvious  Truth,  the  second  one. 
Whatever  God  does  for  us  must  be  done 
through  us.  It  is  no  use  asking  God  to 
make  Peace  for  us  over  our  heads.  It  must 
be  made  by  us  with  God's  help.  Do  you 
think  that  this  is  the  business  of  the  League 
of  Nations  ?  Are  you  trusting  to  President 
Wilson  to  utter  a  magic  Peace  be  still,  and 
hush  the  storms  of  Europe  into  calm  ?  I 
tell  you  God  Almighty  can't  make  Peace 
without  your  help,  never  mind  President 
Wilson  or  Lloyd  George.     There  is  only  one 


The  Book  of  Broken  Dreams 


Power  that  can  make  Peace,  and  that  is 
the  Power  of  God  at  work  in  the  hearts 
and  minds  of  the  great  mass  of  the  human 
race — the  Power  of  God  at  work  in  Pubhc 
Opinion.  This  is  the  power  that  can  change 
the  world,  God  in  Pubhc  Opinion.  For 
centuries  the  people  have  been  driven  into 
Wars  like  sheep,  because  there  was  no 
Public  Opinion.  The  people  did  not  think 
these  matters  concerned  them.  They  were 
not  allowed  to  think.  The  great  new  power 
that  the  progress,  the  weary,  blood-stained 
progress,  of  the  years  has  brought  to  birth 
is  the  power  of  Public  Opinion,  and  every 
man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  world  has  a 
duty  to  perform  in  creating,  fostering,  and 
supporting  it.  That  is  the  real  meaning  of 
Democracy  for  which  we  have  been  fighting. 
There  is  a  lot  of  sickening  cant  and  clap- 
trap talked  about  Democracy.  To  most 
men  it  means  anything  or  nothing.  Our 
politicians  at  election  times  teach  us  that 
it  means  getting  each  his  private  heaven  by 
voting  for  it.  Except  ye  vote  for  Mr. 
Snooks  and  the  Coalition  ye  cannot  see  the 
Kingdom    of    God.     We    are    spoon-fed    on 


8  Lies ! 

splendid  platitudes  like  ''  Government  of  the 
people,  for  the  people,  by  the  people/' 
Which  means  exactly  God  knows  what.  The 
first  meaning  of  Democracy  is  duty,  universal 
duty.  It  means  that  every  man  and  woman 
bears  a  responsibility,  and  has  a  duty  to 
perform  for  their  country,  for  Europe,  and 
the  world.  Actual  executive  government 
must  always  be  carried  on  by  the  few  for 
the  many.  Public  Opinion  must  always  be 
created  as  a  power  by  the  many  for  the  few. 
In  that  work  of  creation  we  all  must  and 
do  bear  a  part.  The  individual  mind  is  the 
drop  out  of  which,  when  it  is  multiplied  by 
millions.  Public  Opinion  is  formed.  The  call 
of  Democracy  is  to  every  man  and  woman  : 
"  What  think  ye  ?  Do  you  think  at  all,  or 
do  you  merely  drift  ?  "  The  greatest  enemy 
of  Democracy  is  drift.  Drift  means  death, 
death  of  heart  and  mind  and  soul,  and 
Democracy  demands  life.  If  that  demand 
is  to  be  satisfied,  it  means  that  every  man 
and  woman  needs  to  have  above  all  things 
principles.  A  man  without  principles  is  a 
man  inevitably  adrift,  as  useless  as  a  broken 
plank  upon  a  stormy  sea.     What  are  your 


The  Book  of  Broken  Dreams 


principles,  your  real  principles  ?  Have  you 
any  ?  Are  you  a  Christian  ?  How  much 
are  you  prepared  to  bet  that  Christ  is  right  ? 
Would  you  bet  me  £5  that  Christian  prin- 
ciples can  be  applied  to  industrial  and  inter- 
national affairs,  or  would  you  rather  bet  me 
£$0  that  the  man  or  nation  which  applied 
them  would  go  to  the  dogs  ?  I  believe  there 
is  only  one  way  in  which  the  Bible's  broken 
dreams  can  be  made  true,  and  the  world 
secure  its  lasting  Peace  for  which  our  bravest 
and  our  best  have  died,  and  that  is  by 
creating  a  Public  Opinion  which  is  prepared 
to  bet  its  life,  its  liberty,  and  its  bottom 
dollar  that  Christ  is  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life  ;  a  Public  Opinion  which  de- 
mands insistently  that  the  principles  of 
Christ  shall  be  applied  to  individual,  national, 
and  international  problems  for  their  solution. 
What  are  the  essential  principles  of  Christ, 
and  how  do  they  apply  to  the  hundred  and 
one  practical  problems  bound  up  with  the 
dream  of  Peace  ?  That  is  the  first  great 
question  which  I  believe  every  patriotic 
Christian  ought  to  ask  himself  to-day,  and 
to    which     he     ought     with     single-hearted 


10  Lies  I 

perseverance  to  seek  an  answer.  That  is  our 
first  duty  as  members  of  a  great  Democracy. 
What  I'm  out  to  do  in  this  book  is  to  try 
and  help  in  a  small  way  to  answer  that 
great  question.  By  all  the  concentrated 
horror  of  these  four  ghastly  years,  by  the 
broken  hearts  of  widows  and  their  lonely, 
loveless  lives,  by  the  agony  of  England,  and 
by  her  bloody  sweat  God  calls  us  all  to  honest, 
fearless  thought.  I  believe  we  shall  respond. 
I  believe  the  Bible's  broken  dreams  are  only 
broken  to  be  formed  anew,  and  become  still 
more  glorious.  I  believe  that  eye  hath  not 
seen,  and  ear  hath  not  heard,  neither  hath  it 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things 
that  God  has  prepared  for  those  that  Love 
Him — Love  Him,  with  a  living,  reckless  Love 
of  heart  and  mind  and  soul.  Only  we  must 
Love  Him,  and  we  must  know  Him  Whom 
we  Love.     We  must  think. 


THE  PLAGUE  OF  LIES 

During  the  last  great  British  advance  I 
was  serving  with  the  5th  and  6th  Man- 
chesters,  as  fine  soldiers,  and  as  good  pals, 
as  any  man  could  wish  to  serve  with.  They 
had  an  American  doctor,  and  I  had  chats 
(if  you  don't  know  what  they  are,  ask 
your  brother  or  your  son).  I  had  them 
bad.  One  day  I  was  standing  outside  the 
Aid  Post  just  behind  the  line,  trying  to 
scratch  my  back  against  the  door  of  the 
dug-out,  and  saying,  "  God  bless  the  Prince 
of  Wales,''  and  the  American  doctor  said, 
*'  Padre,  I  guess  you're  uneasy."  I  said, 
scratching  hard,  '*  Yes,  I'm  uneasy  all  right. 
There's  a  race  between  the  black  'uns  and 
the  red  'uns  going  on  down  my  spine,  and 
there  are  crowds  and  crowds  of  eager  spec- 
tators jumping  up  to  see  them  run,  and  I 
don't  get  a  chance.  Can't  you  give  me 
something  for  'em.  Doc  ?  "  He  said,  "  Have 
a  bath."     I  said,   ''  I  have  had  two  trench 

II 


12  Lies  I 

baths,  but  that  makes  no  odds.  My  chats 
are  amphibious  wonders,  they  take  to  water 
Hke  young  ducks/'  He  said,  ''  Have  your 
clothes  ironed/'  I  looked  at  him  more  in 
sorrow  than  in  anger,  and  said,  ''  That  only 
kills  'em  for  a  little  while,  they  do  a  resurrec- 
tion stunt  in  an  hour  or  two,  and  hop  out 
of  their  graves/'  There  was  an  old  1914 
soldier  standing  by,  and  he  said,  '*  Look 
'ere,  sir,  what  I  don't  know  about  chats 
aren't  worth  knowing.  I've  fed,  nourished, 
cherished,  and  looked  after  them  little 
creatures  now^  for  four  long  years,  and  if 
tha'  takes  my  tip,  sir,  it's  a  straight  'un. 
When  they  gets  too  'ot  there's  nobbut  one 
thing  as  tha'  can  do,  kill  'em,  kill  'em  one 
by  one." 

That  was  real  good  advice.  It's  the  only, 
only  way.  And  chats  are  not  the  only 
things  that  must  be  dealt  with  in  that  way. 
It's  the  only  way  to  deal  with  lice,  and  it's 
the  only  way  to  deal  with  lies.  Lies  in  the 
world  are  like  lice  on  the  body.  They  make 
the  world  uneasy,  and  it  starts  to  scratch. 
When  the  hes  get  very  bad,  the  world  goes 
mad,   and  tears  itself  to  pieces.     When  the 


The  Plague  of  Lies  13 

world  goes  mad  with  lies  it  stops  at  nothing. 
Everything  goes  down  together — child-bearing 
mothers,  and  tender,  pretty  maids,  treasures 
of  art  and  architecture,  and  all  the  beauty 
God  and  man  have  made,  it  all  goes  down 
together  in  a  muddy,  bloody  muddle  of  mad 
misery  when  the  world  goes  mad  with  Hes. 
We  have  just  been  through  a  time  like  that. 
The  world  went  mad  and  scratched  itself 
until  the  blood  ran  down  in  rivers,  and 
part  of  its  body  is  left  blistered,  broken, 
battered,  and  bleeding  like  some  kind  of 
festered  sore.  Go  see  Bailleul  and  walk  from 
there  to  Armentieres,  that  is  what  lies  have 
done.  There  was  an  obscene  wilderness  of 
evil  hidden  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  Prussia 
before  it  came  to  light  and  murdered  France. 
There  is  nought  evil  in  this  world,  but  think- 
ing makes  it  so.  The  desolated  area  is  the 
desert  of  lies. 

All  chats  which  plague  the  soldier's  body 
must  have  been  bred  originally  from  one 
big  chat,  or  two,  Adam  and  Eve  in  the 
garden  of  chats,  and  then  Satan  came  and 
drove  them  out  to  feed  for  ever  on  the  flesh 
of   the   Sons   of   Men.     So   with   lies.     They 


14 


Lies  ! 


are  bred  from  parent  lies,  and  multiply  ex- 
ceedingly on  the  earth.  As  lice  suck  the 
blood  of  men,  so  lies  suck  the  blood  of 
Truth.  Every  successful  lie  must  feed  upon 
a  Truth. 

I  think  it  is  possible  to  capture  and 
examine  the  Parent  lie,  the  Adam  of  lies, 
from  which  this  plague  of  hes  was  bred  to 
drive  our  modern  Europe  mad. 

The  Lie  is  the  very  common  idea  that 
men  are  merely  animals,  scratch  a  man  and 
you  will  find  a  monkey.  Essentially  men 
are  only  animals.  That  is  the  great  lie.  It 
feeds  on  a  great  Truth.  The  Truth  is  that 
man  has  an  animal  nature.  He  has  a  body 
that  must  be  fed,  and  hungry  appetites  de- 
manding satisfaction.  Rehgions  and  re- 
hgious  enthusiasts  often  neglect  this  truth, 
and  try  to  deal  with  men  as  if  they  were 
all  soul  and  no  body.  They  have  given  men 
prayers  in  the  past  when  they  needed  pence, 
and  worship  when  they  wanted  wine  or  even 
water,  and  there  has  been  trouble. 

''  An  army  moves  on  its  belly ''  is  a 
soldier's  saying ;  and  it's  true,  not  only  of 
an    army    but    of    the    race.       Poets    write 


The  Plague  of  Lies  15 

poetry,  artists  paint  pictures,  musicians  lift 
our  souls  into  the  world  where  beauty  reigns 
supreme,  and  they  all  do  it  on  beefsteaks. 
Gray's  *'  Elegy "  and  Francis  Thompson's 
"  Hound  of  Heaven "  were  probably  born 
from  a  steak  and  kidney  pie.  The  body  is 
the  basis  of  all  man's  manifold  activities. 
It  is  a  Truth  that  man  has  an  animal  nature. 
It  is  a  lie  that  man  is  essentially  an  animal. 
It  is  this  lie  that  breeds  tyranny,  militarism, 
commercialism,  war,  social  unrest,  strikes 
and  poverty,  and  all  the  million  sorrows  that 
follow  in  their  train.  The  lie  that  man  is  an 
animal  leads  to  the  belief  that  the  same  laws 
which  govern  animal  life  govern  human  life. 
It  leads  to  the  hen-run  philosophy  of  life. 
You  have  watched  hens  in  a  run  scratching 
for  worms.  One  gets  a  whopper,  a  big  fat 
fellow  ;  another  sees  it,  and  you  can  see  her 
saying,  ''  My  best  beak  and  Sunday  feathers, 
look  what  she's  got."  Off  she  goes  in  pm'suit. 
There's  a  blood  and  fire  fight,  they  lose 
half  the  worm,  and  get  each  a  bit  of  the 
other  half.  If  that  fat-headed  feathered 
fowl  had  had  the  sense  to  spend  the  time 
scratching  poor  old  Mothei   Earth  that  she 


i6  Lies  I 

spent  scratching  sister  hen,  she  might  have 
had  six  fat  worms  instead  of  a  quarter  of 
one,  dusty  and  full  of  grit.  That  is  the 
view  of  human  life  that  this  lie  breeds,  and 
it  has  made  men  like  hens,  and  history 
piteously  like  the  hen-run.  That  is  the  lie 
on  which  barbarism  was  founded.  Men 
lived  by  preying  on  their  neighbours,  fight- 
ing, stealing,  and  murdering.  Then  some 
one  cleverer  than  the  others  had  an  idea. 
He  and  his  family  turned  from  hunting  and 
robbing  their  neighbours  to  tilling  Mother 
Earth.  They  grew  rich,  because  they  com- 
bined to  work.  The  tribe  grew  up  and  grew 
rich  by  working  together  to  till  the  earth. 
When  the  neighbouring  tribes  *  came  to  rob 
and  steal,  they  took  away  more  than  corn 
and  cattle  from  that  tribe,  they  took  away 
an  idea,  the  idea  of  co-operation  to  work. 
When  that  idea  was  born  civilisation  was 
born.  It  is  the  Truth  of  Civilisation  that 
kills  the  lie  of  Savagery. 

Co-operation  is  the  law  of  human  life  by 
which  it  is  lifted  up  above  the  animal  life. 
Man  may  be  descended  from  monkeys,  but 
men   are   not   monkeys.     There   is   as   much 


The  Plague  of  Lies  17 

difference  between  a  man  and  a  monkey  as 
there  is  between  a  monkey  and  a  vegetable 
marrow,  as  much  and  more.  Men  can  speak, 
write,  read,  build  cities,  invent  machines, 
write  poetry,  paint  pictures,  communicate 
with  one  another  in  all  sorts  of  subtle  and 
ingenious  ways,  linking  the  world  into  a 
unity  so  close  that  Tokio  is  nearer  to  London 
to-day  than  York  was  200  years  ago.  Man 
has  changed  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  made 
the  powers  of  Nature  servants  of  his  will. 
Still  the  monkeys  climb  and  chatter  in  their 
old  primaeval  forest  haunts,  unchanging  and 
unchanged,  while  man  proceeds  from  marvel 
on  to  marvel  in  each  succeeding  age.  The 
power  that  lies  behind  all  this  advance  is  the 
power  won  by  co-operation.  With  man  the 
law  of  love  is  the  law  of  life.  If  I  were  to 
say  to  an  audience  of  cockney  soldiers  (the 
best  fellows  God  ever  made),  ''  I  tell  you. 
Boys,  the  great  Truth  is  that  '  God  is 
Love,'  "  they  would  say  to  themselves  :  "  Gaw 
blime,  'e's  on  the  sloppy  rehgious  stunt,  you 
never  can  trust  these  parsons,  once  they 
turns  their  collars  wrong  way  round  they 
can't  'elp  it,''  and  they  would  give  me  up  as 


1 8  Lies  I 

a  bad  job.  If  I  were  to  say  it  to  an  officers' 
mess  they  would  smile  a  kindly  superior 
smile  and  say  :  ''  Why  drag  religion  into  it, 
Padre  ?  These  are  matters  of  fact/'  So  deep 
is  the  universal  assumption  that  religion  and 
sloppy  thinking  go  together.  But  it  is  not  the 
religious  man  who  is  a  sloppy  thinker,  it  is 
the  man  who  tries  to  think  without  it.  You 
don't  drag  religion  in.  You  can't  go  any 
distance  and  keep  it  out.  Common  sense  that 
excludes  God  is  much  too  common,  but  it  is 
not  sense.  That  God  is  Love  is  the  supreme 
Truth,  and  the  only  Truth  that  can  save  the 
world  from  muddle,  murder,  and  misery.  Its 
terms  are  hackneyed  and  misunderstood. 
Love  is  a  bad  word.  It  means  anything  from 
lust  to  loyalty,  from  utter  filth  to  faithful 
sacrifice.  It  ought  not  to  be  corrupted,  but 
it  is.  ''  God  "  means  to  many  men  God  knows 
what,  anything  or  nothing.  Put  the  Truth  in 
other  words.  The  Supreme  power  in  the  world 
is  co-operation.  There  you  have  an  intelligible 
statement  which  is  at  once  a  Truth  and  a 
challenge,  as  all  Truth  is.  It  is  a  Truth  which 
demands  either  enthusiastic  assent  or  fierce 
opposition.     It  has  always  met  with  both,  and 


The  Plague  of  Lies  ig 


that  is  the  secret  of  history.     History  is  the 
tale  of  how  the  Truth  of  Co-operation  has 
fought  the  falsehood  of  strife  and  competition 
all  down  the  ages,  and  how  slowly  and  pain- 
fully co-operation  has  won  its  way,  dragging 
civihsation   behind  it.     It   has   always   won 
and  must  always  win,  because  human  com- 
petition  is   self-destructive.     The   only  good 
that  wars  have  ever  done  is  to  drive  men  into 
closer    unity.     The    German    Empire    is    the 
classic  instance  of  this  law.     It  is  commonly 
said  that  she  was  made  by  the  Wars  of  1864, 
1866,  and  1870,  but  what  these  Wars  did  for 
her  was  to  give  her  unity  and  co-operation, 
and  from  that  unity  her  power  sprang.     So  it 
is  aU  through  history.     God  makes  even  the 
wrath  of  man   to  serve   Him.     Competition 
destroys    itself    and    gives    birth    to    wider 
co-operation.     Competition  never  causes  real 
progress,  it  only  destroys  itself.     But  the  old 
barbaric  He  of  life  on  the  animal  plane  has  been 
hard  to  kill.     In  the  nineteenth  century  it 
took  on  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  assumed  a  new 
and  horrible  form.     It  armed  itself  with  all 
the  powers  man  had  won  by  co-operation. 
Europe  became  more  and  more  like  an  armed 


20  Lies  I 

continent  of  savages,  with  great  nations  for 
tribes,  big  guns  for  bows,  and  shells  for  arrows. 
We  drifted  into  the  period  of  scientific  sava- 
gery. In  1914  it  all  flared  up,  and  made  the 
furnace  for  its  own  destruction.  The  period  of 
scientific  savagery  centres  round  two  great 
figures,  one  in  the  world  of  action  and  another 
in  the  world  of  thought,  two  men  so  utterly 
different  that  only  a  universe  could  connect 
them.  One  was  Bismarck  the  statesman,  and 
the  other  Darwin  the  naturalist.  Bismarck 
was  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  and  most 
primitive  savages  that  have  ever  lived  in  one 
man's  skin.  He  combined  the  intellect  of  a 
Caesar  with  the  soul  of  a  cannibal.  To  him 
men  were  animals,  the  laws  of  human  life  were 
the  laws  of  animal  life,  states  were  organised 
herds,  and  God  was  Blood  and  Iron.  He  was 
by  nature  intended  to  be  King  of  the  Cannibal 
Islands,  but  was  born  in  modern  Prussia.  He 
largely  made  Germany  the  Empire  of  savage 
science,  and  Germany  largely  made  the  scien- 
tifically savage  world.  More  than  we  per- 
ceived during  the  process,  world  politics 
tended  to  centre  round  Prussia,  and  the 
shadow    of    scientific    savagery    fell    across 


The  Plague  of  Lies 


21 


mankind.  The  other  figure  was  his  unconscious 
and  unwiUing  ally,  Charles  Darwin.     Darwin's 
Ongm  of  species  has  had  more  influence  on 
human  life  than  any  other  book  written  since 
the  Bible.     It  opened  out  a  new  world     It 
turned  all  men's  eyes  round,  and  put  them 
in  the  backs  of  their  heads.     The  whole  world 
began  to  progress  by  looking  where  it  was 
coming  from,  instead  of  where  it  was  going  to 
He  threw  such  a  searchlight  of  Truth  upon 
the  origin  of  things  that  men  could  see  nothing 
else.     The  whole  world  became  concentrated 
on  the  new  Book  of  Genesis,  and  never  got 
any  farther.     It  was  natural,  almost  inevitable 
Darwin's  searchlight  laid  bare  the  long  trail  of 
strife  and  struggle  down  which  the  animal 
world  had  made  its  progress,  and  the  revelation 
was    Winding;    it    fascinated    men's    minds. 
Every  one  began  looking  for  the  explanation 
of  the  present  in  the  past.     They  began  to 
explain  man  in  the  light  of  the  monkey.     They 
talked   about   immutable   natural   laws,    the 
inevitable  struggle  for  existence,  the  survival 
of  the  fittest,  the  power  of  natural  selection. 
This  provided  the  scientific  basis  of  thought 
for  the  great  period  of  commercial  and  pohtical 


22  Lies  I 

barbarism.  Monkey  law  reigned  supreme  in 
business  and  in  politics.  Every  one  explained 
how  progress,  by  the  laws  of  Nature,  was  due 
to  free  unfettered  competition,  and  the  natural 
elimination  of  the  unfit  peoples  and  unfit 
businesses.  They  all  turned  back  to  the 
beginning  of  the  world  to  find  its  meaning, 
looked  back  to  the  eg^  to  explain  the  chicken, 
which  is  such  manifest  nonsense  and  absurdity 
that  the  only  explanation  is  the  blinding  power 
of  sudden  light.  It  is  obvious  nonsense,  when 
one  thinks  quietly,  to  try  and  explain  the  end 
of  a  thing  by  its  beginning,  whether  the  thing 
be  man,  a  motor  car,  or  a  universe.  A  heap 
of  separate  parts  can't  explain  a  motor  or  a 
pile  of  stones  explain  a  church.  It  is  the 
motor  that  explains  the  parts  and  the  church 
the  pile  of  stones.  An  acorn  does  not  explain 
an  oak — it's  the  oak  explains  the  acorn.  A 
baby  does  not  explain  a  man,  the  man  explains 
the  baby.  Science  can't  explain  history,  it  is 
history  that  explains  science.  You  must  look 
at  a  progress  in  the  light  of  its  farthest  point. 
You  must  look  where  you  are  going  to  and  not 
where  you  are  coming  from,  or  you  will  fall 
into  a  shell-hole  and  break  your  neck.     Now 


The  Plague  of  Lies  23 

history  fairly  yells  at  you  that  you  are  going 
towards  co-operation  and  coming  from  com- 
petition in  every  department  of  life,  and  we 
must  look  on  in  front,  and  stop  this  crab-like 
method  of  progression  that  has  landed  us  into 
a  world-wide  sea  of  misery.  We  have  pre- 
vented the  lie  of  monkey  law  and  the  hen-run 
philosophy  of  hfe  from  ruining  the  fabric  of 
civilisation,  but  it  is  not  dead  yet,  and  it  must 
be  killed  by  Truth,  Truth  at  work  in  the 
minds  of  men.  The  Truth  to  which  we  must 
cling,  for  which  we  must  be  prepared  to  suffer, 
and  on  which  we  must  recklessly  bet  our 
bottom  dollar  and  our  last  shirt,  is  the  Truth 
that  the  supreme  power  in  the  world  is 
Co-operation.  In  other  words,  with  precisely 
the  same  meaning,  we  must  have  faith  in  God, 
for  God  is  Love. 


THE  LIE  IN  THE  INDUSTRIAL 
REVOLUTION 

There  are  powders  which  will  kill  black 
beetles  but  they  won't  kill  lice.  That  is  one 
of  the  great  discoveries  of  the  War  for  me. 
Krupp  guns  kill  men  but  they  won't  kill  lies, 
that  is  another.  Neither  the  powders  nor  the 
guns  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  so  they  fail. 
There  is  only  one  cure  for  lies,  and  that  is 
Truth.  Truth  never  fails,  but  it  is  very  hard 
to  obtain,  because  there  are  so  many  cheap 
imitations,  and  the  real  thing  is  expensive, 
and  can  only  be  bought  with  Sacrifice  paid 
cash  down.  All  the  world  wants  cheap  Truth, 
but  it  cannot  be  found.  We  keep  on  tr3dng 
cheap  imitations,  and  in  the  end  they  cost  us 
a  hideous  price,  and  do  no  good.  We  shrink 
from  the  Sacrifice  which  alone  can  buy  the 
Truth,  and  in  the  end  pay  more  for  worthless 
lies.  We  have  paid  the  price  of  broken  bodies, 
broken  fortunes,  and  broken  hearts  for  a  lie 
in  this  War,  and  we  look  like  paying  more  in 

24 


The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution      25 

the  same  coin,  unless  we  hurry  up  and  buy 
the  Truth.  We  have  been  trying  to  run  the 
world  on  the  lie  that  men  are  animals,  and 
that  the  law  of  animal  life  is  the  law  of  human 
life.  We  have  been  acting  on  the  assumption 
that  the  world  is  one  vast  hen-run  and  men 
are  the  hens.  There  is  only  a  certain  amount 
of  food,  wealth,  pleasure,  and  power  in  the 
run,  and  life  is  a  struggle  to  get  as  much  of  it 
as  we  can.  The  more  we  get,  the  less  there 
must  be  for  other  people.  The  more  other 
people  get,  the  less  there  must  be  for  us.  Our 
neighbour's  loss  must  be  our  gain.  We  have 
been  like  hens  fascinated  by  the  fat  worm 
wriggHng  in  our  neighbour's  mouth,  and  bent 
on  winning  it  from  him  by  War,  when  all  the 
time  beneath  our  feet  a  million  worms  lay 
buried,  and  only  waiting  to  be  worked  for. 
We  have  pinned  our  faith  to  force  as  the  final 
power  (just  Hke  hens,  and  Til  back  a  hen 
against  all  creation  for  blank  stupidity),  and 
have  believed  in  War,  and  in  fierce  unfettered 
competition,  which  is  War  with  a  borrowed 
cloak  of  Peace  to  hide  its  ugHness.  We  have 
tried  to  build  a  world  on  this  lie,  and  it  has 
burst  into  flames  and  perished  self-destroyed. 


26  Lies  I 

Now  we  have  to  build  a  new  world,  and  every 
one  is  full  of  plans  for  Reconstruction.  All 
our  plans  will  perish  unless  we  find  true 
principles  on  which  to  build  them  up,  and  the 
first  step  is  to  destroy  the  old  false  principles, 
to  kill  the  hes. 

The  body  of  our  modem  world  was  bom  of 
science  and  steam.  They  are  our  parents 
after  the  flesh.  Science  and  steam  have  gone 
out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  they  have  made 
a  path  across  the  desert,  pierced  the  armour 
of  the  mountains,  swept  the  surface  of  the 
sea,  and  made  a  miUion  forces  faithful  servants 
of  man's  will.  The  body  of  the  older  world 
was  bom  in  the  fields  beneath  the  open  sky  ; 
the  body  that  we  wear  to-day,  wounded  and 
bleeding,  was  bom  in  a  factory  'mid  the  roar 
of  many  wheels.  Shut  your  eyes  and  look  at 
Europe  as  it  grows  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  everywhere  you  see  men  and  women 
crowding  in  from  the  fields  into  the  factories 
in  a  never-ending  stream.  The  great,  gaunt, 
ugly  building  with  its  towering  chimney  and 
clouds  of  smoke  is  the  nursery  of  the  modern 
world. 

In  its  essence  the  new  world  is  an  advance 


The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution    27 

on  the  old  one,  and  the  movement  from  the 
fields  is  a  movement  in  the  right  direction, 
because  it  is  a  movement  towards  closer 
co-operation.  Men  and  women  leave  their 
lonely  labour  and  their  isolated  tasks,  and 
crowd  together  for  work,  and  of  course  new 
wealth  and  power  are  the  result,  because 
co-operation  is  the  source  of  power.  In  its 
essence  the  Industrial  Revolution  was  a  co- 
operative movement,  and  it  would  have  been 
an  almost  unmixed  blessing  if,  at  the  beginning, 
men  had  grasped  its  true  meaning.  But  they 
did  not.  The  old  lie  was  at  work.  The 
factory  appeared  as  a  hen-run.  The  employer 
was  one  hen,  and  his  labourers  the  other. 
They  had  found  new  tools  to  grub  for  worms. 
The  new  tools  unearthed  an  enormous  number 
of  worms,  but  each  hen  kept  half  his  attention 
fixed  on  the  other  to  see  that  he  did  not  get 
away  with  more  than  his  share.  The  great 
War  between  Capital  and  Labour  began.  The 
employer  was  at  first  much  the  bigger  and  the 
stronger  hen.  He  chased  and  scurried  the 
labourers  around,  and  only  let  them  have  the 
measHest  and  most  scraggy  worms,  and  not 
too  many  of  them.     The  labour  hen  was  so 


28  Lies  I 

starved  it  could  not  grub  as  fast  as  it  was 
made  to  do,  and  died  early.  Chickens  were 
brought  in  and  made  to  grub  as  fast  as  hens, 
they  worked  long  hours  under  dreadful  con- 
ditions. The  labour  hens  were  driven  to 
unite  for  their  own  protection,  to  save  their 
chickens  and  their  lives.  From  that  first 
shameful  struggle  in  the  hen-run,  the  modern 
world  has  grown.  Without  that  background 
the  present  situation  cannot  be  understood. 
Once  and  for  all,  let  us  remember  that  what- 
ever the  rights  and  wrongs  of  the  present  day 
may  be,  the  burden  of  shame  for  its  evils  must 
be  shouldered  by  the  Employers  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  many  of  whom  were  as  greedy 
and  as  brutally  stupid  as  barn-door  fowls. 
The  Employer  sowed  the  wind  in  those  early 
days,  and  his  children  reap  the  whirlwind  now. 
That  is  just  simple  history. 

As  you  look  back  over  the  last  hundred 
years  you  can  see,  everywhere  in  Europe,  the 
two  great  Industrial  Armies  growing  up — 
the  armies  of  Capital  and  Labour.  They 
grew  more  and  more  united  among  them- 
selves, and  more  utterly  opposed  to  one 
another.     More  and  more  the  life  of  Europe 


Th.e  Lie  in  the  Indiistrial  Revolution    29 

was  revealed  as  really  War,  even  in  times  of 
Peace.  Bitterness  and  misunderstanding  in- 
creased as  the  relations  between  employers 
and  employed  ceased  to  be  human  relations, 
and  the  old  touch  between  master  and  man 
disappeared.  Limited  liability  companies 
killed  what  conscience  the  employer  had. 
Business  became  more  and  more  mere  busi- 
ness, which  meant  that  it  became  more  and 
more  inhuman,  mechanical,  and  murderous. 
Employers,  being  really  human  and  not 
animal  as  they  tried  to  be,  built  huge 
hospitals,  and  founded  charities  to  patch 
up  the  paupers,  physical  wrecks,  and  mad- 
men which  their  business  produced.  So 
they  soothed  their  consciences,  and  made 
Christian  charity  stink  in  the  nostrils  of 
honest  men.  They  gave  their  goods  to  feed 
the  poor  (the  goods  they  didn't  want),  and 
their  charity  crucified  Christ,  because  it  was 
not  true.  The  very  wells  of  human  kind- 
ness were  poisoned  for  the  world  in  the 
days  that  damned  men's  souls  to  build  a 
Church. 

Time   was   on   the   side   of  labour.     Their 
army  grew  every  day  more  strong  and  more 


30  Lies  I 

united.  The  bitterness  bred  of  their  early 
struggles  became  a  tradition  in  the  army,  a 
tradition  fed  and  fostered  by  those  who  only 
saw  salvation  in  a  fight.  Both  armies  lived 
on  the  lie  of  the  hen-roost.  Free  unfettered 
competition  was  the  war-cry  of  the  capitalist, 
class  War  was  the  slogan  of  the  labourer.  So 
it  has  been  in  every  country  in  Europe.  The 
third  party  in  the  contest  was  always  the 
Government.  At  first  the  Government  was 
always  on  the  side  of  the  bigger  hen.  All 
efforts  of  the  weaker  hens  to  unite  were 
fought  tooth  and  nail,  and  put  down  by 
force,  and  often  force  that  knew  no  mercy. 
The  result  was  what  history  drives  one 
always  to  expect.  Might  is  helpless  in  the 
end  against  the  power  of  Right.  There  was 
the  Power  of  Right  behind  this  rising  of  the 
people,  and  all  the  strength  of  their  oppres- 
sors has  proved  powerless  to  oppose  it. 
But  the  pity  of  it  is  that  the  heart  of  the 
workers  has  been  poisoned  by  the  class  War, 
and  they  have  learned  to  put  their  faith  in 
force.  Tyranny  begets  tyranny,  and  labour 
stands  now  able  and  ready  to  take  what  it 
can    by    force.     It    has    not    outgrown    the 


The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution      31 

philosophy  of  the  hen-run  ;   it  has  copied  the 
masters  and  become  the  big  hen. 

The  most  awful  results  can  be  seen  in 
Russia.  There  you  have  the  lie  worked  out 
to  its  logical  conclusion  in  Industry.  Russia 
came  last  into  the  Industrial  Revolution ; 
but  it  came.  The  factory  grew  up.  The 
struggle  in  the  hen-run  was  played  through. 
Labour  was  pitifully  weak.  The  Govern- 
ment, which  was  the  most  crassly  stupid, 
corrupt,  and  cruel  bureaucracy  in  the  world, 
was  all  on  the  side  of  capital.  Every  effort 
of  the  people  to  unite  was  suppressed  with 
cynical  violence.  Prisons  were  filled,  thou- 
sands were  exiled,  and  many  put  to  death. 
As  late  as  April  17,  1912,  five  hundred  killed- 
and  wounded  were  left  on  the  banks  of  the 
River  Lena  in  Siberia,  because  they  dared  to 
ask  their  employers  and  the  local  govern- 
ment for  better  conditions  (vide  Russia  and 
the  Great  War,  by  Gregor  Alexinsky,  ex- 
Deputy  to  the  Duma).  That  is  just  a  last 
instance  of  a  consistent  Government  policy. 
Russia  was  ruled  and  governed  by  the  lie. 
The  first  Russian  revolution  was  the  work  of 
the  best  people  in  Russia.     All  thoughtful. 


32  Lies  I 

conscientious  people  wanted  to  overthrow 
the  autocracy,  and  secure  a  reasonable 
measure  of  popular  self-government,  and  the 
first  Revolution  would  have  secured  it ;  but 
the  power  of  the  lie  ruined  their  work.  The 
long  years  of  brutal  tyranny  had  made  their 
mark.  The  people  had  been  treated  as 
animals,  ruled  as  animals,  and  they  behaved 
as  such.  They  were  poisoned  by  the  lie. 
Red  Revolution  and  the  great  class  War 
were  the  only  hopes  that  their  blind  eyes 
could  see,  and  they  took  them  with  both 
hands,  and  now  no  one  dare  put  in  print  the 
naked  truth  about  Russia  ;  it  would  turn  a 
strong  man  sick.  The  results  of  War  between 
nations  are  loathsome,  but  the  results  of  War 
between  classes  are  more  loathsome  still. 
The  effort  of  every  man  who  has  read  the 
history  of  Revolution,  and  knows  what  it 
means,  must  be  concentrated  on  saving  his 
country  from  that  last  horror.  We  must  put 
an  end  to  this  class  War  which  is  the  root  of 
Revolution  and  its  miseries.  We  have  the 
root  in  England.  The  bitterness,  the  mis- 
trust, the  mutual  suspicion  between  the 
classes    which    prevents    all    plans    for   real 


The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution      33 

co-operation,  they  are  all  there,  and  it  must  be 
our  task,  our  first  task,  to  tear  them  out  of 
the  nation's  heart.  We  must  grasp  and  hold 
the  Truth  which  these  years  of  sorrow  should 
have  taught  us,  that  the  appeal  to  force  is 
fundamentally  wrong,  it  is  worse  than  a 
crime,  it  is  a  blunder.  It  is  futile  waste  of 
time.  Bolshevism  is  just  this  faith  in  force 
worked  out  to  its  logical  issue  in  national 
pontics,  as  Prussianism  is  this  faith  worked 
out  to  its  logical  conclusion  in  International 
pohtics.  We  cannot  construct  anything  on 
a  basis  of  hatred.  No  War  can  ever  do  any 
positive  good.  There  is  a  lot  of  sloppy  senti- 
ment talked  about  the  good  this  War  has 
done  to  us  as  a  nation.  It  is  supposed  to  have 
purified,  uplifted,  sanctified,  and  strengthened 
our  national  character.  I  confess  I  do  not 
see  any  signs  of  it.  I  am  not  surprised.  I 
do  not  see  anything  in  War  that  could  do 
all  those  wonders.  War  gives  men  a  chance 
to  display  certain  very  splendid  primitive 
virtues,  providing  they  already  possess  them, 
but  it  creates  nothing.  There  is  one  great 
good  thing  that  it  may  do  for  us  if  we  will 
learn   its   lesson.     It   may   destroy   itself  in 


34  Lies ! 

our  hearts  and  minds  ;  it  may  open  our  eyes 
to  the  Truth  that  all  War  is  futile  waste, 
and  drive  us  to  the  task  of  national  co- 
operation for  good.  If  it  does  that  we  shall 
take  a  new  lease  of  life  and  go  forward  to 
great  things  ;  if  it  does  not,  and  we  continue 
our  class  Wars,  our  bitterness,  our  mutual 
suspicion,  and  our  faith  in  force,  then  the 
day  may  come  when  no  one  will  dare  to  put 
in  print  the  naked  Truth  about  Britain.  The 
real  root  of  all  our  national  misery  is  the 
War  between  the  classes ;  that  has  been  the 
real  enemy  all  along.  In  the  name  of  our 
dead  comrades,  can  we  not  kill  that  enemy 
now  ?  Can  we  not  wipe  out  the  past  with 
all  its  evils  and  its  wrongs,  and  get  down 
together  to  constructive  work  ?  We  must 
do  it  sooner  or  later,  and  why  not  now  ? 
Why  suffer  more  ?  Why  be  blind  any 
longer  ?  Has  not  the  light  of  the  last  four  years 
been  strong  enough  ?  I  have  seen  it  in  the 
ruined  villages,  in  dead  men's  faces  and  their 
staring  eyes ;  I  have  read  it  in  the  misery  of 
that  weird  wasted  land  of  wire  and  lonely  graves 
beside  the  Somme — the  Truth.  No  good  can 
come  of  any  War  except  the  end  of  War. 


The  Lie  in  the  Industrial  Revolution      35 

They  drank  "  The  Day  "  ! 
To  the  roofless  mined  cottage. 
With  its  door-post  dripping  red, 
To  the  Mother  disembowelled. 
And  her  babe  without  a  head. 

We  drink  "  The  Day  "  ! 
To  the  proud  deep-bosomed  Mother 
With  her  Baby  at  her  breast. 
To  the  cottage  in  the  shadows. 
Where  the  workman  comes  to  rest. 


STREET  CORNER  LIES 

There  was  in  my  Parish  a  very  pious  old 
lady,  as  good  and  as  gentle  an  old  creature 
as  you  could  wish  your  grandmother  to  be. 
She  had  been  in  the  habit  all  her  Hfe  of 
making  her  confession  to  her  Parish  priest 
at  regular  intervals.  When  I  went  on  leave 
she  used  to  come  to  me.  Once  she  came, 
but  said  that  before  she  made  her  confession 
she  would  like  to  ask  a  question.  "  A  few 
weeks  ago/'  she  said,  "  I  read  in  the  paper 
about  some  German  officers  who  laughed  at 
some  of  our  men  who  were  gassed  and  gasp- 
ing for  breath  in  agony,  and  as  I  read  I 
felt  that  I  would  hke  to  take  those  officers 
and  strangle  the  Hfe  out  of  them  with  these 
old  hands,  squeeze  them  until  they  died. 
Now,  was  that  feeling  wrong,  and  ought  I 
to  include  it  in  my  confession  7  "  I  thought 
for  a  moment,  and  then  said,  "  Madame,  if 
you  had  not  felt  like  that,  and  had  no  desire 

36 


Street  Corner  Lies  37 

to  punish  those  men,  it  would  have  been  a 
serious  sin  of  omission,  and  ought  to  be 
included  in  your  confession/' 

The  twinkle  in  the  old  lady's  eye  answered 
the  twinkle  in  mine  :  she  understood.  The 
man  or  woman  who  has  no  power  of  moral 
indignation  needs  no  hell  hereafter  ;  he  is 
damned  already,  if  he  has  a  soul  to  damn. 

There  is  one  class  of  people  who  make  me 
feel  as  that  old  lady  felt,  and  that  is  the  class 
who  meet  all  plans  to  abolish  poverty  with  a 
superior  smile,  and  the  words,  *'  Impossible,"/ 
"  Human  Nature,"  and,  finally,  *'  The  poorl 
shall  always  be  with  you."  There  is  more 
real  blasphemy  in  those  words  than  in  the 
most  lurid  Sergeant's  speech  that  ever  turned 
the  air  of  Flanders  blue.  It  is  sheer  blank 
atheism.  It  would  make  Christ  blaze  at  its 
dishonest  stupidity,  as  it  makes  the  ordinary 
man  in  the  street  swear.  Here  lies  the  great 
secret  power  of  the  demagogue.  It  is  com- 
monly assumed  that  the  demagogue  or  agita- 
tor wins  his  way  by  his  appeal  to  the  base 
and  selfish  instincts  of  his  audience.  He  is 
supposed  to  influence  men  purely  by  offering 
them  something  for  nothing.     If  that  were 


38  Lies ! 

true  the  demagogue  would  not  be  really 
dangerous,  because  the  good  sense  and  better 
nature  of  the  people  would  defeat  him  in  the 
end.  But  he  plays  on  finer  chords  than  that. 
He  appeals  to  men's  better  selves. 

"  Who  earns  all  the  wealth  of  the  world  ?  " 
he  cries.  *'  Who  swells  the  swollen  coffers 
of  the  rich  ?  Who  makes  this  the  Richest 
country  in  the  world  ?  You,  the  men  who 
labour  with  your  hands  ;  you  who  earn  your 
bread  with  the  sweat  of  your  brow  ;  you 
whose  hands  are  hard  and  dirty  with  toil ; 
you  who  work  all  day  for  just  enough  to 
keep  you  working,  and  then  stagger  back 
to  your  hovels  to  sleep  that  you  may  work 
again  ;  you  whose  children  go  ill-shod,  ill- 
fed,  to  be  badly  educated  at  cheap  schools ; 
you  whose  wives  bring  up  a  family  in  two 
rooms,  working  their  Hves  out,  with  horror  of 
destitution  always  shadowing  their  homes — 
you  earn,  the  wealth.  All  w^ealth  is  earned 
by  labour,  for  without  labour  there  could  be 
no  wealth.  You  earn  it — who  spends  it  ? 
The  rich  man  with  his  mansion,  and  his 
motor,  his  man-servants,  maids,  and  flunkeys  ; 
his    wife    decked    out    with    diamonds,    who 


Street  Corner  Lies  39 

dances  through  Hfe  as  though  it  were  a  ball- 
room, with  as  little  as  possible  on  her  body 
and  nothing  at  all  in  her  head,  too  refined  to 
nurse  her  own  children,  too  careful  often  to 
bear  them.  The  Rich — ^the  idle  rich — ^they 
spend  the  wealth  and  squander  on  their 
luxuries  the  life-blood  of  the  poor  ;  the  rich, 
who  feast  in  the  midst  of  famine,  and  steal 
your  children's  bread.  How  long  will  you 
stand  it  ?  How  long  will  you  submit  to  a 
tyranny  which  starves  and  stunts  your  chil- 
dren's souls  and  bodies  ?  When  will  you 
unite  and  take  what  is  rightly  yours  ?  When 
will  you  realise  your  power  and  act  like  men  ? 
You  have  been  bottom  dog  for  years  ;  when 
are  you  going  to  show  your  teeth,  take  hold, 
and  grip  for  your  children's  sake  ?  You  have 
the  power  now  ;  use  it  now,  and  no  child  need 
cry  for  bread." 

Now,  when  I  heard  a  speech  like  that,  and 
believed  it  wholly  true,  I  wanted  to  start  at 
once.  I  looked  round  for  a  brick  or  a  bomb 
to  shy  at  the  first  man  I  saw  in  a  motor  or 
top  hat.  The  dirty  dogs,  I  thought,  bricks 
are  too  good  for  them.  It  was  not  the  greed 
of  gold,  the  thirst  for  beer,  or  the  love  of 


40  Lies ! 

idleness  that  made  me  look  for  bombs,  bricks, 
red  flags,  and  revolutions — it  was  the 
children.  They  did  the  trick.  I  knew  that 
those  main  facts  were  true.  I  knew  that 
children  were  underfed  and  badly  housed.  I 
had  seen  it  with  my  own  eyes.  That  know- 
ledge made  me  mad.  I  believe  a  hungry 
child  would  make  Christ  mad.  I  beHeve  that 
hungry  children  and  child-waste  make  God 
Almighty  mad.  I  knew,  too,  that  the  other 
side  was  true  ;  that  men  and  women  did  Hve 
in  silly,  soul-destroying  luxury,  lived  Hke 
fools,  and  filled  divorce  courts  because  they 
had  no  work  to  do,  too  much  to  eat  and  drink, 
and  too  much  to  spend.  The  solution  seemed 
simple  and  easy.  Destroy  the  inequalities 
and  level  incomes  down.  Fairer  distribution  ; 
that  was  all  that  w^as  required.  Mr.  Sydney 
Webb  put  the  thing  into  words  for  me  exactly 
when  he  said,  '*  There  is  a  growing  consensus 
of  opinion  that  the  inevitable  outcome  of 
Democracy  is  the  control  of  the  main  instru- 
ments of  production  by  the  people  themselves, 
and  the  consequent  recovery  of  what  John 
Stuart  Mill  calls  '  the  enormous  share  '  which 
the  possessors  of  industry  are  able  to  take  of 


Street  Corner  Lies  41 

the  total  produce."  There  was  the  problem 
and  its  solution  in  a  nutshell.  I  used  to 
roll  that  off  at  meetings,  and  John  Stuart 
Mill  made  it  so  intellectually  respectable. 
But  alas  !  facts  are  cruel  things,  and  care 
nought  for  respectability,  intellectual  or  other- 
wise.  I  investigated  and  I  am  doubtful 
about  that  "  enormous  "  share.  I  am  afraid 
it  is  not  big  enough  to  solve  the  problem  of 
poverty  in  any  country  in  the  world.  We 
forget  so  easily  a  simple  thing  that  makes  all 
the  difference — ^there  are  so  many  poor  and 
so  few  very  rich.  I  find  that  there  are  only 
1,500  people  in  Great  Britain  with  an  income 
of  over  £20,000.  If  the  people  were  to 
recover  their  '*  enormous  share,"  it  would 
give  them  about  fourpence  a  week  extra. 
Now  I  don't  mind  revolting  to  secure  the 
millennium,  but  I  refuse  to  revolt  for  four 
packets  of  woodbines.  It  is  not  good  enough. 
I  know  of  course  that  statistics  are  the  devil. 
There  are  three  kinds  of  liars — liars,  damned 
liars,  and  statisticians — but  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  insist  on  the  minute  accuracy  of 
statistics  to  prove  the  main  proposition  true. 
It   is   enough   if   the    sheets    and   sheets   of 


42  Lies ! 

information  reproduced  from  official  sources 
in  books  like  Grey  and  Turner's  Eclipse 
and  Empire  or  Mallock's  Limits  of  Pure 
Democracy — it  is  enough  if  they  be  roughly 
true,  and  that  they  certainly  are. 

The  real  situation  is  not  so  simple,  and 
does  not  admit  of  such  simple  solution.  It 
is  really  Hke  this.  Suppose  a  battalion  700 
strong  were  going  short  of  bread,  going  ten 
to  a  loaf.  Suppose  that  these  hungry  men 
found  out  that  their  Head  Quarters  Mess, 
consisting  of  ten  people,  were  eating  one  loaf 
each.  In  their  rage  at  this  injustice  suppose 
they  went  to  Head  Quarters,  killed  the 
Colonel,  jumped  on  the  Padre,  smothered  the 
Doctor,  and  bayoneted  the  rest,  and  went 
away  in  triumph  bearing  ten  loaves  of  bread 
to  distribute  among  seven  hundred  men. 
Think  of  the  speech  the  Sergeant-Major  might 
make.  ''  Men,  we  have  got  our  rights,  we 
have  killed  the  tyrants,  and  I  have  for  every 
man  one-seventieth  of  a  loaf  extra.  Be  care- 
ful it  does  not  blow  away,  and  go  to  bed 
content.  This  battalion  is  ruled  by  the 
people."  That  is  exactly  the  position  in  the 
Russian  Revolution,  where  the  poor  deluded 


Street  Corner  Lies  43 

peasants,  mesmerised  by  the  apparent  wealth 
of  the  rich,  are  demanding  wages  amounting 
to  hundreds  of  pounds  a  year  when  the  total 
income  of  the  country  could  not  give  them 
^15  a  head.  That  more  or  less  is  the  situa- 
tion everywhere.  It  is  the  hen-run  over 
again  ;  men  are  fascinated  by  the  big  worm 
in  their  neighbour's  beak,  and  forsake  their 
grubbing  in  Mother  Earth  to  chase  him. 

The  Demagogue,  even  when  he  is  sincere, 
too  often  tells  lies.  That  speech  of  his  is 
full  of  lies.  It  would  not  solve  the  problem  of 
poverty  if  the  people  rose  to  take  from  the  rich 
to  give  to  the  poor.  The  ''  enormous  "  share  is 
not  enormous  enough. 

Wealth  is  badly  distributed.  It  is  wickedly 
distributed,  but  the  problem  is  not  solely  a 
problem  of  distribution,  it  is  also  a  problem 
of  production.  It  is  important  to  improve 
the  method  of  distribution,  but  the  main 
thing  is  to  get  wealth  to  distribute.  Karl 
Marx,  who  is  the  father  of  that  lie,  was  either 
wilfuUy  or  ignorantly  blind  to  the  part  that 
exceptional  brain  and  exceptional  abihty 
played  in  the  great  Industrial  Revolution, 
and  the  inevitable  part  that  they  must  play 


44  Lies ! 

in  modem  production.  ^  It  is  fatal  to  kill  the 
Colonel  when  you  ought  to  kick  the  Quarter- 
master or  strafe  the  A.S.C.  You  cannot 
distribute  short  rations  so  as  to  feed  a  Batta- 
lion however  fairly  you  do  it.  Our  great  need 
at  the  present  minute  is  an  enormous  output. 
We  must  increase  our  production.  What 
stands  in  the  way  ?  The  old  enemy — War. 
War  between  employers  and  employed.  Let 
us  get  that  fixed.  Our  great  enemy,  greater 
than  Prussia  ever  was,  is  the  Class  War. 
Modem  production  demands  closer  and  closer 
co-operation  between  the  brain  and  the  hand 
of  the  nation. 

It  is  a  lie  to  say  that  all  wealth  is  produced 
by  labour  if  by  labour  you  mean  manual 
work.  Once  more  we  must  face  facts.  The 
real  root  of  modern  wealth  is  the  appHcation 
of    Science    and     Scientific     Knowledge     to 

1  Marx  IS  accurate  in  his  analysis  of  the  factors  of  production, 
if  the  analysis  is  applied  to  production  previous  to  the  Industrial 
Revolution  proper.  It  is  true  that,  up  to  then,  production  was 
in  the  main  the  result  of  manual  labour,  and  such  simple  organisa- 
tion and  invention  as  manual  labourers  could  carry  out  them- 
selves. But  as  an  analysis  of  modem  production  by  highly 
complicated  machinery  combined  with  scientific  organisation, 
the  Marxian  analysis  is  absurd.  It  leaves  out  the  great  factor — 
the  brain  work  of  the  exceptional  few. 


Street  Corner  Lies  45 

Industry.  The  increase  in  wealth  in  these  days 
as  compared  with  the  Middle  Ages  is  due  to 
very  complex  machinery  and  scientific  organi- 
sation. That  is,  it  is  due  to  brain  work  and 
not  to  hand  work.  It  is  quite  true  that  with- 
out manual  work  there  would  be  no  wealth  at 
all,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  without  expert 
brain  work,  that  is,  without  the  work  of  the 
exceptional  few,  there  would  be  just  enough 
to  mock  our  miseries  as  we  starved,  with  our 
present  population.  Manual  labour  without 
the  assistance  of  expert  brains  could  not  keep 
our  population  alive.  The  quarrel  between 
the  brain  of  the  people  and  its  hands  is 
ruinous,  and  if  it  continues  will  land  us  into 
miseries  we  cannot  now  conceive.  The  quarrel 
has  actually  caused  most  of  the  poverty  there 
is,  and  will  cause  more  unless  it  cease.  Men 
are  not  rational  when  they  quarrel.  Men  and 
masters  have  not  been  rational.  Masters 
have  restricted  wages,  and  men  have  re- 
stricted output,^  and  both  restrictions  breed 
poverty.  Low  wages  mean  that  millions  of 
people    cannot    demand    goods    beyond    the 

^  It  seems  likely  that  masters  have  restricted  output  too  in 
order  to  keep  up  prices.     There  is  evidence  for  it. 


46  Lies  I 

barest  necessities  of  life,  and  so  there  is  a 
smaller  market  and  a  less  demand. 

Restricted  output  and  keeping  down  pro- 
duction to  the  rate  of  the  slowest  workman 
spells  poverty  in  so  many  letters.  Moreover, 
the  quarrel  has  made  the  men  suspect 
machinery,  which  always  causes  temporary 
unemployment  and  poverty,  though  it  is  the 
main  source  of  ultimate  wealth.  The  history 
of  sabotage  and  the  destruction  of  machinery 
is  a  melancholy  result  of  the  lie  of  War  in  the 
Industrial  World.  So  long  as  men  continue 
to  believe  that  all  the  profits  of  their  added 
work  will  go  to  make  the  rich  richer,  and  all 
the  profits  of  better  machinery  go  to  the 
same  bottomless  pit,  so  long  will  they  put 
limits  to  their  output  and  refuse  machinery, 
both  of  which  actions  produce  poverty.  We 
must  kill  the  lie  that  any  good  can  come  of 
this  or  any  other  War,  and  recognise  the 
Truth  that  our  very  existence  demands  that 
we  co-operate. 

It  is  vain  to  ruin  masters  if  we  still  starve 
men,  and  that  is  all  the  quarrel  can  ever  do. 
If  men,  seeing  only  that  they  have  the  power 
in  their  hands  to  demand  more  and  more,  go 


Street  Corner  Lies  47 

on  blindfold,  striking  to  demand,  the  result 
is  certain  ruin.  If  masters  still  continue  to 
adopt  the  fighting  attitude  and  resist  reason- 
able and  unreasonable  demands  alike  ;  if  they 
go  on  disguising  dividends  and  watering 
capital,  playing  the  vile  old  game  of  War,  the 
ruin  is  sure  to  come. 

There  is  only  one  thing  that  can  save  us — 
Truth.  The  nation  is  a  co-operative  society, 
and  must  be  recognised  as  such.  Its  labours 
of  hand  and  brain  have  one  purpose  and  one 
end  in  view,  the  creation  and  maintenance  of 
a  happy,  healthy,  honest  people,  pure  women, 
strong  men,  and  jolly  children.  That  purpose 
and  that  end  in  view  must  become  part  and 
parcel  of  the  national  conscience  and  the 
national  will.  The  nation  is  one  in  God's 
eyes  ;  we  must  make  it  one  in  our  own.  If 
we  continue  to  work  on  clap-trap  and  lies  we 
shall  perish.  Once  more  I  say  the  Truth  is 
the  Truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  was  the 
most  practical  business  man  that  ever  lived — 
God  is  Love. 


LIES  AND  LIBERTY 

'*  Man  is  born  free  and  is  everywhere  in 
chains/'  That  is  the  way  the  Father  of  the 
French  Revolution  begins  his  greatest  book. 
It  is  a  perfectly  topping  sentence,  but  I  am 
not  sure  what  it  means.  It  rouses  indigna- 
tion and  pity,  and  paints  a  wonderful  picture. 
Everywhere  you  see  the  masses  of  men  groan- 
ing in  slavery  under  the  tyrant's  hand  ;  while 
overhead  there  shines  the  vision  of  their 
rightful  heritage  of  freedom,  leisure,  and  ease 
towards  which  they  stretch  out  helpless  hands, 
finding  it  always  so  near  and  yet  so  far  away. 

It  is  a  grand  sentence  for  a  revolutionary 
because  it  rouses  up  men's  passions  and  puts 
their  thought  to  sleep.  That  is  what  a  revo- 
lutionary always  wants  to  do.  Revolutions 
depend  on  passion  for  their  power — not  on 
thought.  But  let  us  think.  What  does  it 
mean  ? 

*'  Man  is  born  free.''  That  must  mean 
free  babies,  since  every  man  is  born  a  baby. 

48 


Lies  and  Liberty  49 


Now  I  cannot  imagine  a  free  baby  being  a 
success,  if  freedom  means  the  power  to  do 
precisely  what  one  likes,  and  to  order  one's 
actions  without  interference  from  any  one 
outside.  A  free  baby  would  only  succeed  in 
giving  its  mother  forty  fits,  and  then  solemnly 
starving  itself  to  death. 

Nor  does  freedom  come  to  the  growing 
child.  In  the  home  and  in  the  school  he 
finds  himself,  and  must  find  himself,  guided 
and  governed  by  people  from  outside,  con- 
stantly obliged  to  obey  commands.  When 
the  boy  becomes  a  man  and  passes  from  the 
school  world  into  the  wider  world  of  life,  with 
nine  men  out  of  every  ten  it  is  the  same 
story — our  actions  are  constantly  guided  and 
governed  by  other  people. 

We  have  to  work  ;  and  to  only  a  few  men 
does  the  chance  come  to  be  absolutely  supreme 
in  any  work.  To  only  a  few  can  it  ever  come 
in  any  state  of  society.  The  vast  majority  of 
men,  if  they  are  to  keep  body  and  soul  to- 
gether, will  always  have  to  obey  orders  ;  and 
the  man  who  is  supreme  over  his  own  work  is 
very  often  the  most  closely  tied  and  confined 
man  of  all. 


50  Lies  I 

So  it  appears  that  not  only  is  man  not  bom 
free  and  completely  self-determined,  but  that 
most  men  never  become  free  or  completely 
self-determined  if  they  are  to  do  any  work  in 
the  world  at  all.  And  there  lies  the  danger 
of  this  great  sentence.  It  holds  before  men 
an  impossible  prospect  which  no  state  of 
society  could  ever  really  give  them,  and  it  sets 
them  hankering  after  and  longing  for  a  will- 
o'-the-wisp  or  a  dream — and  not  a  very 
healthy  dream  at  that. 

There  is  something  wrong  with  this  sen- 
tence. What  is  it  ?  It  uses  a  very  large 
word  without  in  any  way  defining  its  mean- 
ing. Liberty  is  one  of  the  biggest  words  in 
the  English  language,  and  is  therefore  very 
hard  to  define.  Does  it,  then,  only  stand  for 
a  dream  ?  Or  does  it  stand  for  reality  ?  It 
stands  for  the  greatest  of  all  realities,  and 
therefore  the  reality  which  is  the  hardest  to 
define.  First  let  us  recognise  this  great  fact, 
that  if  men  are  to  unite  in  order  to  work 
there  must  be  discipline.  Disciphne  is  an 
absolute  necessity  in  any  co-operative  effort. 
That  is,  there  must  be  in  every  co-operative 
effort   those  who   command  and  those  who 


Lies  and  Liberty  51 

obey,  those  who  direct  and  those  who  carry 
out  their  directions. 

But  there  are  very  different  kinds  of 
discipHne.  There  is  the  discipHne  that  a  man 
imposes  upon  a  stupid  beast  Hke  an  ox,  which 
can  only  be  made  to  obey  by  the  infliction  of 
pain.  There  is  the  discipHne  which  a  man 
imposes  on  a  horse  which,  if  he  be  a  good 
horseman,  is  a  mixture  of  driving  and  leading, 
punishment  and  coaxing.  There  is  the  dis- 
cipline which  a  man  imposes  on  a  child  which 
has,  or  ought  to  have,  in  it  less  driving  and 
more  leading,  less  punishment  and  more 
coaxing.  There  is  the  discipline  which  a  man 
imposes  on  a  growing  boy  or  girl  in  which,  as 
it  grows,  there  ought  to  be  less  and  less  of 
driving  and  more  and  more  of  leading,  less 
and  less  of  the  appeal  to  pain,  and  more  and 
more  of  the  appeals  to  reason  and  to  love. 
Finally,  there  is  the  discipline  which  a  man 
imposes  on  a  man,  and  there  it  ought  to  be 
possible  to  dispense  with  driving  altogether 
and  rely  entirely  upon  leading.  And  this 
ought  to  be  the  ideal  of  all  who  have  to  deal 
with  men. 

But  men  are  all  more  or  less  children  still, 
3 


52  Lies ! 

and  it  is  impossible  as  human  nature  is  to-day 
to  dispense  entirely  with  compulsion.  It  asks 
too  much  of  the  leaders,  and  it  asks  too  much 
of  the  led.  You  see  this  in  the  Army.  You 
know  the  two  kinds  of  officers — the  leader 
and  the  tyrant.  The  man  who  treats  his  men 
like  children  and  like  fools,  and  drives  and 
nags  and  batters  them  into  work — he  never 
gets  the  best,  he  misses  the  key  to  the  real 
power-box  in  his  men.  The  fine  leader  makes 
his  men  work  with  him  by  example,  by  per- 
suasion, by  reason,  by  love  and  respect.  But 
the  finest  leader  in  the  world,  in  charge  of 
any  large  number  of  men,  will  find  some  who 
do  not  respond,  and  with  whom  he  has  to  fall 
back  on  force. 

Yet  the  ideal  remains,  the  ideal  of  a  dis- 
cipline which  relies  upon  love  and  reason  and 
not  on  penalties.  Growth  in  freedom  means 
passing  from  the  lower  discipline  to  the 
higher.  And  that  is  the  history  of  the  world. 
The  history  of  the  world  is  the  history  of 
man's  slow  and  painful  passage  from  the 
discipline  of  compulsion  to  the  discipline  of 
free-will  ;  the  passing  of  man  from  the 
conscript   to  the   volunteer.     The  only  real 


Lies  and  Liberty  53 

freedom  is  willing  service.     The  free  man  is  a 
servant  always,  and  yet  is  not  a  slave. 

Up  to  the  present  the  vast  majority  of  the 
world's  army  of  workers  have  been  conscripts, 
enlisted  under  the  natural  compulsion  of 
starvation.  Men  have  had  to  work,  and  work 
hard,  or  starve,  and  if  they  wanted  to  attain 
wealth  and  independence,  they  have  had  to 
work  harder  still  or  else  steal  and  scheme  and 
lie.  Because  this  system  has  meant  so  much 
hardship,  so  much  tyranny  of  the  strong  over 
the  weak,  and  so  much  waste  of  human  life, 
so  much  lying  and  scheming ;  because  the 
struggle  for  existence  in  the  industrial  world 
has  tended  inevitably  to  become  more  sordid, 
soulless,  and  brutal,  men  everywhere  desire  to 
see  drastic  reformation,  if  not  revolution,  in 
the  system.  But  the  fact  we  must  face — the 
great  hard  rock  of  fact  against  which  our 
industrial  Utopias  go  to  pieces,  is  the  neces- 
sity of  disciphne.  If  we  take  away  the  dis- 
cipline of  starvation,  and  the  incentive  of 
self-interest,  which  up  to  now  has  kept  the 
army  of  this  world's  workers  going  strong, 
we  must  put  something  in  their  place.  The 
world  cannot  live  in  time  of  Peace  without 


54  Lies  I 

discipline,  any  more  than  an  army  can  fight 
in  time  of  War  without  it.  If  a  man  is  honest 
he  will  acknowledge  that  in  time  of  War  there 
were  two  great  forces  which  kept  him  fighting 
— one  was  his  desire  to  serve  the  cause,  to  do 
his  best,  and  to  stand  well  with  his  comrades  ; 
the  other  was  discipline,  the  knowledge  that 
there  was  death  behind  as  well  as  in  front, 
that  one  stood  between  the  Devil  and  the 
Deep  Sea.  Death  with  honour  and  death  in 
disgrace — but  death  anyhow. 

So  in  the  industrial  world  men  have  stood 
between  the  devil  of  hard  work  and  the  deep 
sea  of  starvation.  They  have  often  been  paid 
much  less  than  they  produced,  sometimes 
exactly  what  they  did  produce,  but  their 
masters  have  seen  that  they  were  not  paid  a 
penny  more  than  they  produced.  Now  we 
feel  that  this  harsh  natural  discipline  must 
be  made  lighter  ;  men  claim  the  right  to  live, 
and  live  in  decent  conditions,  and  the  con- 
science of  mankind  approves  the  claim.  But 
if  we  take  away  or  interfere  with  the  discip- 
line of  the  struggle  for  existence,  what  is  to 
take  its  place  ?  What  is  going  to  keep  us, 
not  merely  working,  but  working  hard  enough, 


Lies  and  Liberty  55 

producing  enough,  to  make  decent  conditions 
possible  for  all  ?  Penal  settlements  and 
punishments  might  deal  with  the  absolute 
slacker  and  wastrel,  but  he  does  not  really 
matter ;  he  does  not  count  for  much  in  the 
great  mass  of  men.  What  is  going  to  keep 
us,  not  merely  working — we  would  probably 
work  a  little  anyhow — but  working  hard  ? 
for  we  must  work  hard  if  we  are  to  Uve  as  men 
claim  the  right  to  live  to-day.  If  a  man  can 
muddle  along  fairly  comfortably  on  what  he 
gets  for  three  days'  work  a  week,  what  is 
going  to  keep  him  working  six  ?  If  he  can 
exist  on  wages  which  he  earns  by  slack  and 
easy  work,  what  is  going  to  make  him  do  his 
best  ?  Production  and  the  motive  of  produc- 
tion are  two  of  the  great  problems  that  we 
have  to  solve. 

It  simply  is  not  true  that  we  can  pay  proper 
wages  all  round  on  our  present  production. 
If  we  are  all  to  live  as  we  want  to  live,  we 
must  work  not  only  as  hard,  but  much  harder 
than  we  worked  before.  What  is  going  to 
keep  us  at  it  ?  We  cannot  continue  to  spend 
more  than  we  produce.  If  we  remove  the 
natural  penalties  of  starvation  and .  struggle. 


56  Lies  I 

if  we  do  away  with  compulsion  which  arises 
out  of  competition,  what  disciphne  is  to  take 
its  place  ?  If  men  are  not  to  be  driven  to 
work,  they  must  be  led.  Who  is  going  to 
lead  them,  and  on  what  motives  are  they 
going  to  rely  ?  I  am  not  charging  all  men 
with  being  slackers  and  wastrels,  I  am  only 
charging  them  with  being  men  ;  and  men 
have  all  to  face  the  temptation  to  slack,  to 
shrink  from  great  strain,  not  to  be  altogether 
idle,  but  to  work  easy.  That  Temptation  has 
to  be  met.  It  can  only  be  met  by  discipline — 
and  that  discipline  must  either  be  the  dis- 
cipline of  compulsion  or  the  discipline  of  a 
driving  sense  of  duty.  If  the  worker  is  not  a 
conscript  of  starvation,  then  he  must  be  a 
volunteer  from  a  sense  of  duty. 

Here  you  have  the  key  to  the  real  meaning 
of  Democracy.  Democracy  is  not  any  known 
form  of  government  that  has  ever  been  tried 
upon  earth.  It  is  an  ideal,  an  aspiration, 
and  a  hope.  It  is  the  ideal  of  a  society  in 
which  every  member  shall  be  a  worker — not 
a  conscript  worker,  but  a  volunteer.  This 
ideal  is  the  most  powerful  and  life-giving 
force  acting  on  the  world  to-day.     The  true 


Lies  and  Liberty  57 


democrat  is  the  man  who  refuses  to  abandon 
it  as  an  ideal,  no  matter  what  difficulties  and 
what  dangers  stand  in  the  way. 

The  truly  democratic  statesman  is  the  man 
who  fearlessly  faces  the  colossal  task  of 
universal  education — the  educating  of  every 
citizen  to  such  a  stage  of  intelligence  and 
understanding  that  he  will  become,  not  a 
grasping  self-seeker,  but  a  willing  servant  of 
the  State.  The  truly  democratic  leader  of 
industry  is  the  man  who  sets  before  him  as 
an  ideal  the  education  of  every  man  in  his 
factory  to  the  point  when  he  becomes,  not  a 
conscript  wage-earner  driven  by  force  of 
starvation  to  do  his  part,  but  an  intelhgent 
and  willing  partner  in  a  great  enterprise. 
That  is  the  ideal  of  Democracy  for  those  who 
lead.  But  they  are,  and  will  always  be,  the 
smaller  number  of  the  human  race. 

The  great  majority  of  men  will  always  have 
to  be  led,  and  Democracy  means  for  them  the 
effort  to  educate  themselves  and  train  them- 
selves to  a  complete  devotion  to  their  duty. 
Democracy  is  impossible  without  a  driving 
sense  of  duty.  You  cannot  make  a  Demo- 
cracy out  of  people  who  are  for  ever  thinking 


58  Lies  I 

of  their  rights  and  never  of  their  responsi- 
bihties.  This  is  the  danger  of  clap-trap, 
shining  visions,  and  dazzhng  hopes  of  wealth 
and  ease  and  leisure,  without  duty  and  with- 
out labour — a  dream  which  would  really  be  a 
nightmare  if  it  ever  came  true. 

Democracy  has  two  great  enemies — the 
irresponsible  demagogue  and  the  cynic — the 
demagogue,  who  inflames  men's  passions  and 
leads  them  to  suppose  that  heaven  on  earth 
is  close  at  hand  if  only  they  have  the  courage 
to  knock  down  a  policeman  ;  and  the  cynic, 
who  believes  that  there  never  can  be,  and 
never  will  be,  any  heaven  on  earth  at  all. 
The  one  stirs  men  to  frantic  efforts  based  on 
passion  without  thought ;  the  other  cripples 
all  effort,  and  bids  men  fold  their  hands  and 
never  try  to  change  the  world  at  all — or  worse 
than  that,  bids  men  seek  salvation  not  in  ser- 
vice but  in  selfishness,  which  is  the  ancient  lie. 

There  is  a  great  phrase  in  the  Prayer  Book 
which  contains  the  deepest  truth :  ''  O  God, 
who  art  the  author  of  peace  and  lover  of  con- 
cord, in  Knowledge  of  whom  standeth  our 
eternal  hfe,  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom." 
There  are  some  strange  things  in  the  Prayer 


Lies  and  Liberty  59 

Book,  but  that  sentence  is  the  best  bit  of 
concentrated  truth  that  I  know  in  the  EngHsh 
language.  It  is  a  proper  Prayer  Book  pill  ol 
Truth,  worth  a  guinea  a  box.  It  ought  to  be 
pasted  up  and  placarded  over  every  city  in 
the  country,  and  men  ought  to  be  taught  to 
take  it  as  the  motto  of  Democracy.  God,  the 
Supreme  Power,  is  the  source  of  peace  and 
unity.  In  the  knowledge  of  that  Spirit  of 
peace  and  unity — that  is,  in  the  growing 
knowledge  of  the  Spirit  of  Co-operation — lies 
the  eternal  power  of  progress.  And  as  we 
grow  to  know  and  understand  it  better,  as  we 
learn  how  to  work  one  with  another  in  the 
service  of  the  highest  good,  our  service  passes 
more  and  more  into  perfect  freedom. 

A  man  may  work  impossible  hours  at 
impossible  tasks,  but  if  his  heart  is  in  his 
work,  if  he  sees  the  reason  of  it  and  loves  the 
master  whom  he  serves,  that  man  is  free. 
This  freedom  which  is  willing  service  is  the 
freedom  toward  which  the  world  is  growing — 
painfully,  blindly,  blunderingly  growing.  It 
is  the  part  of  every  man  who  wants  to  play  a 
man's  part  in  the  world  to  foster  that  growth 
by  every  effort  of  his  hand  and  brain. 
3* 


6o  Lies  I 

It  is  the  part  of  every  State  to  set  itself  with 
all  its  might  to  this  colossal  task  of  universal 
education  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  word. 
Education,  which  will  give  to  men  not  merely 
knowledge  but  a  motive  for  continued  learn- 
ing, not  merely  a  means  of  life  but  a  motive 
for  living,  not  merely  ability  to  work  but  the 
enthusiastic  desire  to  work  hard.  Only  so  can 
Democracy  be  anything  more  than  the  grandest 
of  our  dead  dreams — only  so  can  we  be  set 
free. 


LIES  AND  EQUALITY 

When  one  starts  talking  about  co-operation 
one  inevitably  gets  mixed  up  with  the  false 
doctrine  that  all  men  are  equal.  People 
picture  a  co-operative  society  as  one  in  which 
all  members  play  an  equal  part,  and  have 
equal  influence.  The  doctrine  of  human 
equality  is  an  absurd  lie  which  no  one  could 
believe  for  an  instant  if  it  were  not  for  the 
big  Truth  in  which  it  is  always  hidden.  Men 
are  so  manifestly  unequal.  One  man  is  six 
foot  four  in  his  stockings,  and  another  is  four 
foot  six  in  his  boots.  One  man  is  astound- 
ingly  clever,  and  another  abysmally  stupid. 
One  man  can  produce  music  that  would  bring 
tears  to  the  eyes  of  an  ostrich,  and  another 
doesn't  know  the  difference  between  "  God 
Save  the  King ''  and  ''  Pop  goes  the  Weasel." 
I  have  got  a  fist  like  a  baby,  and  my  brother 
has  one  like  a  leg  of  mutton.  It  is  absurd. 
Men  and  women  are  the  most  unequal  things 
God  ever  made.     That  is  just  the  fun  of  them. 

6i 


62  Lies  I 

It  takes  all  sorts  to  make  a  world.  Yet  this 
is  a  very  popular  lie,  and  is  at  the  bottom  of 
a  great  deal  of  clap-trap  which  is  talked  about 
Democracy.  The  essence  of  political  Demo- 
cracy, according  to  one  definition  of  it,  is 
"  that  every  man  shall  have  an  equal  voice  in 
the  affairs  of  the  common  country,  and  that 
he  shall  have  this  equal  voice  by  virtue  of  his 
manhood  alone.'' 

Now  that  sounds  all  right,  but  unless  it 
means  that  we  shall  have  got  the  essence  of 
Democracy  as  soon  as  we  can  obtain  ''  one 
man  one  vote,''  it  means  nothing  but  absur- 
dity. If  an  equal  voice  means  not  merely  the 
vote  but  equal  influence,  it  is  nonsense.  It 
would  mean  that  because  Mr.  Lloyd  George  is 
a  man,  and  Mr.  Billy  Bungnose,  chief  pillar  of 
the  Peg  and  Whistle,  Pump  Street,  is  also  a 
man,  that  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  Mr.  Bung- 
nose  should  have  an  equal  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  common  country.  In  which 
case,  God  help  the  common  country !  It 
would  also  mean  that  because  I  am  a  man, 
and  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  is  a  man, 
that  I  and  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
should  have  an  equal  influence  on  the  finances 


Lies  and  Equality  63 

of  the  British  Empire.  In  which  case,  God 
help  British  credit !  I  doubt  if  He  v/ould. 
God  does  not  help  fools  to  further  folly.  The 
truth  is  that  in  practice  the  many  must 
always  be  ruled  by  the  few.  There  never  has 
been,  and  there  never  will  be,  any  state  of 
society  in  which  this  is  not  so.  The  man  of 
many  talents,  armed  with  eloquence  of  speech, 
may  only  cast  one  vote,  but  how  many  votes 
does  he  turn  to  his  side.  The  Editor  of  a 
great  newspaper  may  forget  to  vote  at  all, 
but  what  does  that  matter  when  half  a  million 
people  take  their  opinions  from  his  paper. 
The  brilhant  leader  will  carry  a  million  Bung- 
noses  with  him  to  the  poll.  OHgarchy — or  the 
rule  of  the  few  over  the  many — is  a  practical 
necessity  in  all  democracies.  Oligarchy  is  the 
soul  of  trades  unionism,  which  is  supposed  to 
be  the  quintessence  of  Democracy.  When  the 
oligarchy  of  trades  unions  fails,  unionism  fails 
and  you  get  chaos.  It  is  the  same  in  industry. 
Practically  the  few  must  rule  the  many. 
The  vision  of  a  modern  industry  in  which 
every  one  had  an  equal  voice  or  influence  by 
virtue  of  his  manhood  alone  is  the  vision  of 
ain   impossibility.      Modem   industries   make 


64  Lies ! 

wealth  by  applying  scientific  knowledge  to 
manufacture,  and  the  process  often  involves 
exact  and  detailed  knowledge  of  such  things 
as  Chemistry,  Mathematics,  and  Mechanics. 
The  larger  portion  of  the  enormous  increase 
of  Wealth  in  modern  times  is  due  to  scientific 
organisation  and  complicated  machinery  and 
not  to  manual  labour. 

Imagine  Jim  Betts  the  stoker  being  called 
in  to  exercise  his  equal  influence  in  a  matter 
involving  obscure  chemical  reactions.  All  he 
would  say  would  be,  *'  Garn,  you  and  your 
chemistry,  my  fire's  going  out ;  "  and  quite 
right  too.  Every  man  to  his  job.  You  may 
say  that  this  is  only  a  temporary  state  of 
things  due  to  bad  education,  and  that  the 
time  will  come  when  Jim  Betts  will  know  as 
much  about  Mathematics,  Chemistry,  Me- 
chanics, Economics,  and  Foreign  Markets  as 
his  master.  I  believe  in  the  future  of  Jim 
Betts,  but  I  also  believe  that  you  may  educate 
until  you  are  blue  in  the  face  and  you  will 
never  get  every  one  expert  at  everything,  nor 
even  get  every  one  expert  at  any  one  thing 
that  involves  long  and  concentrated  mental 
effort.     I  believe  that  inequalities  of  ability 


Lies  and  Equality  65 

are  as  much  part  and  parcel  of  human  nature 
as  differences  in  appearance,  and  that  there 
must  always  be  men  of  exceptional  ability 
who  must  guide  and  govern  the  ordinary  man. 
Oligarchy  is  a  necessity. 

Is  Democracy  then  all  a  dream  ?  Is  it  only 
a  castle  in  the  air  which  can  never  stand  on 
earth  ?  Of  course  it  is  not  merely  a  dream  ; 
it  is  the  goal  of  human  development ;  it  is 
the  state  toward  which  all  progress  moves. 
But  Democracy  is  not  based  upon  the  false 
doctrine  that  all  men  are  equal.  So  far  as  it 
is  a  living  man-moving  reality  it  is  based  on 
the  Truth,  which  is  so  often  used  to  cloak  the 
lie  of  equality;  the  Truth  for  which  Christ 
chiefly  stood,  ''  That  all  men  are  of  equal 
value  in  the  sight  of  God.''  That  is  the  idea 
that  lies  at  the  root  of  true  Democracy.  Jim 
Betts  the  stoker  may  not  be  equal  to  the 
manager  in  ability,  but  he  is  ultimately  of 
equal  value.  He  may  not,  and  probably  does 
not,  produce  nearly  as  much  as  the  manager ; 
but  his  life  must  not  be  stunted  or  starved  for 
the  sake  of  the  manager  or  the  class  of 
managers.  He  has  an  absolute  right  to  the 
fullest  life  of  w^hich  he  is  capable,  and  a  true 


66  Lies  I 

Democracy  will  see  that  he  gets  it.  This 
Truth  rules  our  lives  now  in  many  ways,  but 
not  in  all  ways  as  it  must. 

We  recognise  that  the  child  of  the  cobbler 
has  as  much  right  to  the  best  medical  advice 
as  the  child  of  the  King.  We  would  blame 
a  doctor  who  did  not  treat  his  poor  patients 
as  he  did  the  rich,  because  all  men  have  an 
equal  right  to  life.  For  the  same  reason  we 
hang  the  man  who  murders  Mr.  Brown  the 
bargeman  as  we  would  hang  the  man  who 
murdered  Mr.  Balfour.  Both  have  an  equal 
right  to  life.  True  Democracy  develops  this 
Truth  and  recognises  that  all  men  have  an 
equal  right  to  sunshine,  sanitation,  healthy 
homes,  good  education,  and  all  the  culture 
of  which  they  are  capable.  Every  human 
life  which  is  dwarfed  and  crippled  through 
lack  ©f  opportunity  to  develop  is  a  disgrace 
to  a  Democracy,  and  must  be  recognised  as 
a  disgrace  by  truly  democratic  people.  Our 
slums  are  a  disgrace  to  us  all ;  they  ought  to 
fill  every  one  with  shame,  because  they  are 
full  of  crippled  lives,  every  one  of  which  is  of 
infinite  value. 

But  if  this  great  Truth  is  to  be  worked  into 


Lies  and  Equality  67 

our  lives  as  members  of  a  democratic  State 
it  must  be  combined  with  another  Truth  for 
which  Christ  stood — the  Truth  that  the  Secret 
of  Life  is  Service.  That  is  the  Truth  that 
shows  us  the  real  meaning  of  human  in- 
equalities. Mr.  Balfour  is  beyond  doubt 
superior  in  abiHty,  and  in  many  other  respects, 
to  Mr.  Brown.  Then  Mr.  Balfour  must  use 
his  superior  talents  to  serve  Mr.  Brown,  to 
help  him  to  a  full  and  worthy  life. 

If  the  man  of  superior  abilities  is  not  a 
public  servant  he  is  a  parasite,  and  more 
unworthy  of  his  manhood  than  an  ignorant 
and  drunken  pauper.  If  he  uses  his  ability 
to  serve  himself  at  the  expense  of  his  fellow- 
men,  to  get  on  and  get  over  them,  his  success 
is  the  measure  of  his  failure.  He  is  like  those 
enormous  bloated  flies  that  buzz  round  the 
dead  on  a  battlefield.  Filthy  things,  clothed 
in  gorgeous  colours,  their  bright  green  wings 
flashing  in  the  sun  as  they  seek  the  choicest 
morsels  of  the  swollen  and  disfigured  dead. 
That  is  exactly  what  a  superior  man  is  like 
who  is  not  out  to  serve. 

A  Democracy  must  be  filled  through  every 
member  of  it  with  the  idea  of  service.     Every 


68  Lies  I 

man  must  do  his  bit,  and  every  woman  too. 
You  cannot  found  a  Democracy  on  the  spirit 
of  self-seeking  and  faith  in  force.  The  attempt 
will  only  end  in  tyranny  under  a  democratic 
disguise.  History  is  full  of  so-called  demo- 
cratic Governments  that  have  out-tyrannised 
the  tyrants  and  conducted  reigns  of  terror  in 
the  sacred  name  of  liberty.  Our  progress 
towards  real  Democracy  can  be  measured  by 
the  growth  amongst  us  of  the  true  spirit  of 
service — and  it  is  growing.  The  coming  of 
Democracy  is  not  really  to  be  found  in  the 
unrest,  the  upheaval,  and  the  strike ;  they 
are  the  froth  and  foam  of  the  great  sea  of  the 
true  spirit  that  under  God  is  steadily  rolling 
in.  What  power  will  abolish  slums  and 
sweating  and  exploitation  ?  The  spirit  of 
service,  which  will  make  men  shudder  at  these 
things  and  feel  them  to  be  an  intolerable  dis- 
grace. That  power  is  abolishing  them.  The 
real  strength  of  the  Labour  Movement  lies  in 
its  appeal  to  the  two  great  Truths — the  equal 
value  of  all  men  ultimately,  and  the  spirit  of 
service.  The  Truth  behind  the  lie  that  all 
wealth  is  due  to  labour  is  the  Truth  that  life 
is  service,   and  that  the  man  who  does  not 


Lies  and  Equality  69 

serve  has  no  right  to  Hve.  The  He  that  all 
wealth  is  created  by  manual  labour  will  die, 
and  is  dying  fast.  The  Truth  that  service  is 
the  soul  of  Democracy  will  live,  and  work  its 
will. 

When  the  Labour  Movement  relies  on  its 
power  it  relies  on  its  weakness  ;  when  it  relies 
on  its  Truth  it  relies  on  its  irresistible  strength. 
When  the  Miners  tell  us  they  will  starve  us  if 
we  do  not  pay,  we  prepare  for  battle  ;  when 
they  point  to  ten  people  living  in  one  room 
outside  a  monster  pleasure  palace,  we  drop 
our  rifles  and  shout  "  Kamerad.''  We  cannot 
stand  that.  So  it  is  always.  The  foolishness 
of  God  is  wiser  than  men,  and  His  weakness 
is  stronger  than  our  strength.  Truth  is  always 
putting  down  the  mighty  from  their  seats, 
and  exalting  the  humble  and  meek.  The 
appeal  to  force  which  for  years  the  capitalist 
made  has  been  perfectly  futile,  it  has  only  led 
to  an  appeal  equally  futile  on  the  other  side. 
The  two  lies  will  destroy  one  another,  and  out 
of  the  chaos  will  come  a  truly  democratic 
order,  based  on  the  two  truths,  that  all  lives 
are  of  equal  value,  and  that  the  secret  of  life 
is  service. 


70  Lies  I 

There  is  hope  that  the  hell-fire  we  have  just 
been  through  will  purge  our  minds  of  false- 
hoods, and  let  the  Truth  come  in.  We  have 
been  fighting  the  barbaric  and  anti-democratic 
idea  of  a  state  which  refuses  to  recognise  the 
value  of  the  individual  life,  and  looks  upon 
men  as  made  for  states,  and  not  states  as 
made  for  men.  We  have  been  fighting  for  the 
root  truth  of  Democracy  that  all  men  are  of 
equal  value  in  God's  sight,  and  that  no  men 
are  to  be  counted  as  cannon  fodder  to  feed  the 
idol  of  political  power  based  on  force. 

It  ought  to  have  cleared  our  hearts  and 
minds  and  made  us  eager  to  recognise  the 
Truth  that  Britain  is  for  the  British,  not  in 
the  narrow  and  exclusive  sense  which  would 
keep  out  foreign  friend  and  foe  ahke,  but  in 
the  deeper  sense  that  Great  Britain  can  never 
be  truly  great  until  every  British  Hfe  is  lived 
as  fully  and  as  freely  as  it  has  power  to  live. 
It  ought  to  have  made  us  certain  of  the  equal 
value  in  God's  sight  of  every  Britisher. 

Moreover,  we  should  have  won  through  our 
suffering  a  new  idea  of  service  and  its  mean- 
ing. There  has  been,  and  there  could  be,  no 
pretences  during  the  War  that  all  men  were 


Lies  and  Equality  71 

equal.  Our  cry  was  for  leaders,  for  men  and 
women  of  ability.  We  wanted  outstanding 
brains,  initiative,  skill,  and  learning,  and  we 
called  them  to  service.  We  wanted,  too,  the 
ordinary  brain,  the  ordinary  initiative,  skill, 
and  learning,  and  the  ordinary  pluck,  and  we 
called  them  to  service. 

They  both  responded  to  the  call,  and  co- 
operated for  a  common  end,  and  their  co- 
operative response  to  the  call  of  service  is  the 
cause  of  our  success.  And  despite  all  the 
misery  and  mourning  of  the  war  our  hearts 
have  been  happy  and  our  lives  glad  because 
we  have  been  consciously  serving.  The  lady 
has  scrubbed  floors  and  waited  on  the  sweep, 
the  sweep  has  killed  Bosches  and  suffered  for 
the  lady,  and  both  have  been  glad  because 
they  knew  they  served.  Service  transforms 
work.  We  have  been  learning  the  joy  of 
service,  and  have  delighted  in  honouring  it, 
and  recognising  it  as  the  only  real  title  to 
honour.  If  we  have  really  learned  that  lesson 
true  Democracy  is  dawning,  and  now  is  our 
salvation  nearer  than  when  we  beheved.  The 
danger  is  lest  we  forget,  and  the  War  just 
fizzles  out. 


72  Lies  I 

That  is  the  best  expression  for  the  lost 
feehng  of  the  demobihsed  I  ever  heard.  A 
soldier  in  a  bowler  hat  said  to  me  :  ''  This  'ere 
war  is  just  fizzling  out/'  The  demobilised 
man  has  lost  something.  There  is  something 
he  is  feehng  round  for,  like  a  man  who  has 
lost  his  cigarette-case  and  hasn't  a  fag  in  the 
world.  What  is  it  ?  It  is  his  sense  of  service. 
He  left  it  in  the  pocket  of  his  khald  clothes. 
That  is  the  danger.  We  cannot  get  Demo- 
cracy until  we  recognise  that  the  man  who 
digs  our  country's  coal  is  as  much  in  the  ser- 
vice as  the  man  who  kills  our  country's  foes, 
and  the  man  who  drives  the  British  trains  as 
much  in  the  service  as  the  man  who  trains  the 
British  guns.  We  must  recognise  that,  and 
they  must  recognise  it.  We  must  recognise 
it  and  honour  labour  accordingly.  Half  the 
trouble  is  that  we  do  not  honour  the  workman 
as  we  honoured  the  soldier.  We  pretend  to, 
but  we  don't.  We  honour  the  working  man 
in  theory,  and  avoid  him  in  practice.  The 
clerk  still  imagines  himself  superior  to  the 
mechanic.  One  great  cause  of  social  unrest 
is  snobbishness.  There  were  some  fools  in 
the  army  who  thought  they  were  better  men 


Lies  and  Equality  73 

than  privates  because  they  were  captains. 
There  were  some — but  very  few.  Men  were 
honoured  for  their  manhood  out  there.  The 
soldier  misses  that  here.  The  seed  of  Demo- 
cracy is  that  sense  of  service  and  the  pride  of 
being  a  serving  man  which  the  demobihsed 
soldier  is  groping  after.  We  must  give  it  back 
to  him — that  is  the  problem.  The  soil  is 
good,  the  best  soil  in  the  world,  for  the  soil  of 
Democracy  is  the  heart  of  the  British  people. 
Some  one  wrote  to  me  the  other  day,  and 
said :  ''  Come  right  home.  The  boys  out 
there  are  all  right.  Here  at  home  people  are 
soulless  and  self-worshippers.  On  Saturday 
the  Guards  carried  their  glorious  colours 
through  the  London  streets,  not  a  head  was 
bowed,  not  a  cap  removed.''  That  makes  me 
laugh,  it  is  so  blankly  and  blindly  pessimistic. 
I  saw  the  Guards  march  down  the  Strand, 
wedged  in  among  the  crowd.  It  was  the  most 
intensely  British  performance  I  ever  saw.  A 
military  pageant  is  always  a  joke  to  a  Britisher, 
and  not  even  the  shadow  of  those  dreadful 
days  could  kill  the  humour  of  it  now.  The 
men  marched  steady  as  a  rock  with  a  twinkle 
in   one   eye — the   people   cheered    {j>ace   my 


74  ^^^5  / 

correspondent),  but  there  was  laughter  in 
their  cheers,  and  when  the  demobihsed  men 
in  caps  and  civies  came  along,  they  and  the 
crowd  just  laughed  at  one  another.  It  was 
British,  and  I  loved  it.  I  am  not  pessimistic. 
These  people  are  the  same  people  that  I  knew 
out  there — the  same  bone,  blood,  and  temper 
— and  in  their  incorrigible  humour,  their 
instinct  of  honesty,  and  their  love  of  fair- 
play,  there  is  the  soil  for  true  Democracy. 
They  need  leaders,  teachers,  and  rulers,  filled 
with  the  love  of  service,  to  show  them  how  to 
serve,  and  to  tell  them  the  Truth.  If  they  are 
well  led  and  well  taught  they  will  prove  to  be 
in  Peace  what  they  have  proved  to  be  in  War 
— the  best  human  material  in  the  world. 


THE  LIE  OF  LUST 

I  KNOW  that  appearances  are  against  me,  and 
yet  I  stoutly  maintain  that  I  am  not  a  monkey. 
I  cannot  help  my  face.  I  had  to  take  the  one 
that  was  served  out  to  me  ;  but  I  can  help 
my  soul,  my  innermost  ''  me,*'  to  a  certain 
extent,  and  when  my  face  stands  up  to  my 
soul  and  claims  it  for  a  monkey  soul,  there  is 
a  tremendous  force  arises  in  me  to  defy  my 
face.  If  ever  that  force  fails  me  I  shall  be 
damned.  That  is  the  story  of  my  life  in  a 
nutshell.  It  is  the  fight  between  my  face  and 
me.  And  I  am  a  very  ordinary  man,  and  so 
my  story  is  man's  story.  Of  course  most 
people  are  better  off  in  the  way  of  faces.  But 
the  main  fact  remains.  The  story  of  men  and 
women  is  the  story  of  the  fight  between  the 
monkey  and  the  man  within  their  souls.  We 
are  not  animals,  we  are  infinitely  more  than 
animals,  and  yet  we  had  an  animal  origin, 
and  that  origin  is  the  root  cause  of  our  sin. 
You  see  when  the  animal  in  man  comes  out 

75 


76  Lies ! 

and  gets  the  mastery,  it  does  not  appear  as 
simple  animal  nature,  but  always  as  some- 
thing hideous  and  diabolic  which  is  obscene 
because  it  is  unnatural.  Lust  in  an  animal  is 
natural,  and  even  beautiful,  it  is  just  the  hfe 
force  born  of  God  making  for  more  life.  But 
lust  in  a  man  is  obscene  and  filthy  because  it 
is  unnatural.  It  becomes  cruel  and  debased. 
It  does  not  proceed  to  the  making  of  children 
naturally  and  cleanly  ;  it  descends  to  unmen- 
tionable and  disgusting  things.  The  report 
on  the  German  atrocities  in  Belgium  provides 
a  kind  of  horror-chamber  in  which  we  can  see 
what  lust  can  bring  men  to.  As  one  reads 
that  awful  document  a  kind  of  hot  shame 
comes  over  one,  and  makes  one  sweat  for 
sorrow  over  sin.  The  sting  of  that  shame 
lies  in  the  fact  that  one  is  dreadfully  con- 
scious that  the  root  of  that  disgusting  horror 
is  there  in  one's  own  soul.  Have  you  never 
felt  a  ghastly  doubt  rising  up  in  your  mind 
when  you  read  such  things  ?  Now  what  am 
I  reading  this  for  ?  Is  it  purely  because  I 
want  to  hate  it  ?  Isn't  there  some  force  at 
the  back  of  me  that  embraces  it,  and  would 
go  out  to  it,  even  the  worst  of  it,  if  another 


The  Lie  of  Lust  jy 

force  within  me  were  to  fail  ?  Write  a  book 
about  the  cruelties  and  debaucheries  of  a 
Nero  or  a  Rasputin,  and  it  will  sell.  There  is 
an  appeal  in  it  which  thousands,  nay,  which 
all  men  feel,  which  all  men  would  answer,  if 
the  other  force  within  them  failed.  But  the 
horror  of  it,  the  shame  for  it,  is,  thank  God, 
as  real,  more  real,  than  the  appeal.  There  is 
human  history  :  the  war  between  the  appeal 
and  the  repulsion  of  sin  :  the  war  between 
the  monkey  and  the  man.  There  are 
thousands  of  writers,  artists,  playwrights, 
musicians,  who  are  making  their  fortunes  out 
of  the  appeal  to  the  animal  in  man.  It  is  the 
best  paying  business  in  the  world.  Yet,  if 
there  is  anything  that  human  experience 
makes  certain,  it  is  that  there  is  no  end  to 
the  journey  a  man  makes  in  answer  to  that 
appeal  except  damnation,  the  utter  loss  of  all 
that  makes  life  good.  Lust  cannot  satisfy  a 
man,  because  he  needs  Love.  Lust  is  un- 
natural in  man,  it  leaves  one  side  of  his 
nature  out,  and  sooner  or  later  that  neglected 
side  has  its  revenge,  and  turns  life's  sweet- 
ness bitter  to  his  taste.  Then  in  his  despair 
he  will  descend  in  search  of  new  sensations  to 


78  Lies ! 

things  which  men  cannot  mention,  or  even 
think  of  without  shame.  That  is  the  way  of 
it  with  all  men  if  the  great  force  fail  that 
leads  them  upward  from  the  animal  to  the 
human  and  divine. 

One  of  the  queer  human  reasons  why  the 
regulation  of  vice  by  the  State  has  been  a 
practical  failure  in  every  country  in  the  world, 
and  why  the  attempt  to  confine  the  prostitute 
to  the  brothel  or  licensed  house  is  never  a 
success,  is  that  men  are  human  and  not 
animal,  even  in  their  vice,  and  they  are  really 
seeking  Love,  and  not  Lust.  They  uncon- 
sciously seek  not  merely  a  concubine  but  a 
comrade ;  their  real  need  is  not  a  harlot  but 
a  home.  They  do  not  want  to  pay  their 
money  down  and  get  physical  satisfaction  ; 
they  want  a  friendship,  a  human  personal 
relationship,  a  romance. 

The  hosts  of  men  and  women  who  go  out 
to  the  streets  of  a  great  city  at  night  and  look 
in  one  another's  faces  as  they  pass  beneath 
the  lamps  are  love-seekers  deceived  and  de- 
luded by  lust.  You  can  never  solve  the 
problem  by  regulating  the  deception.  You 
cannot  regulate  romance  without  killing  it ; 


The  Lie  of  Lust  79 

regulated  vice  is  not  what  even  a  debased 
man  wants.  That,  too,  is  the  reason  of  the 
bewildering  hatred  which  can  grow  up  in  the 
hearts  of  a  man  and  a  woman  who  married 
mistaking  lust  for  love.  They  will  murder 
one  another  because  each  means  to  the  other 
the  failure  of  the  human  quest  of  Love.  It 
is  the  commonest  tragedy  in  the  world,  and 
it  springs  from  the  same  old  lie  that  men  are 
animals.  Once  more  the  lie  stands  between 
us  and  our  dreams.  Democracy  demands  co- 
operation between  men  and  women.  Each 
has  a  part  to  play,  and  either  they  must  enter 
paradise  hand  in  hand,  or  find  themselves  for 
ever  barred  from  entry  by  the  Angel  with  the 
flaming  sword  of  Truth.  The  story  of  man 
and  woman  as  they  journey  down  the  ages  is 
one  of  the  most  tragic  and  terrible  of  all  the 
stories  that  go  to  make  up  human  history. 

Thrown  together  always  by  an  irresistible 
force  which  drives  them  on  to  propagate 
their  race,  they  come  to  their  bodily  union 
with  a  separation  in  their  souls,  and  a  longing 
for  a  deeper  union  which  they  cannot  under- 
stand. Before  oiu"  dreams  can  come  true  that 
deeper  union  must  be  realised,  and  love  must 


8o  Lies ! 

conquer  lust.  To-day  the  whole  world  is 
being  called  to  war  with  the  plague  of  venereal 
disease.  The  scourge  must  be  destroyed. 
Many  of  our  best  brains  are  interested  in  the 
problem,  the  best  forces  of  our  intellect  are 
being  concentrated  on  it,  and  rightly  so.  All 
that  Medical  Science  can  do  is  needed,  but 
at  bottom  it  is  a  human  problem.  You  can- 
not cure  men  of  venereal  disease  as  you  could 
cure  dogs  of  mange.  You  must  do  all  you 
can  along  those  lines,  but  the  root  of  the 
matter  is  the  lie  of  lust,  and  that  can  only  be 
met  by  Truth,  the  Truth  of  Love.  Men  and 
women  are  not,  and  can  never  be  just  concu- 
bines, they  are  made  to  be  comrades.  There 
is  the  irresistible  force  driving  us  to  propagate 
the  race,  but  there  is  another  force  more 
subtle,  and  in  the  end  more  strong,  driving 
us,  leading  us,  pleading  with  us  in  a  thousand 
piteous  ways  to  find  the  deeper  union  and  the 
Truth.  Even  if  medical  science  could  deliver 
us  from  venereal  disease,  and  all  it  means, 
lust  would  still  lie  heavy  as  a  curse  upon  our 
civilisation,  as  a  dead  weight  to  crush  our 
dreams,  because  it  prevents  the  comradeship 
and  full  co-operation  between  men  and  women 


The  Lie  of  Lust  8i 

which  true  Democracy  demands.  Behind  the 
ghastly  grinning  figure  of  War,  with  its  death's 
head  and  its  dripping  hands ;  behind  the 
Moloch  of  commercialism  with  its  brutal  claws 
upon  the  fluttering  wings  of  life  ;  behind  all 
the  cruelty  of  man  to  man,  and  of  man  to 
woman,  stands  lust,  clothed  as  a  woman  in 
gorgeous  robes,  with  bare  breasts  and  an  evil 
smile  beckoning  men  to  follow  her.  Men 
fight  for  riches,  toil  for  fame,  degrade  their 
souls,  and  slay  their  brothers  to  lay  their 
trophies  at  her  feet,  and  obtain  her  burning 
kiss  as  their  reward — only  to  find  the  kiss  a 
curse  that  leaves  an  empty  hungering  behind. 
It  is  absolutely  essential  that  we  recognise  as  a 
radical  cause  of  all  our  miseries,  war,  disease, 
poverty,  and  brutality — the  corruption  that 
is  in  the  world  through  lust.  Teaching  which 
does  not  recognise  it  is  mere  trifling.  If  you 
want  to  find  the  cause  of  human  miseries 
*'  cherchez  la  femme  "  is  the  truth  ;  but  she 
is  not  really  woman  when  we  find  her,  she 
is  the  travesty  of  woman's  truth  that  lust 
creates  to  lure  men  on.  The  True  woman  is 
much  more  beautiful,  much  more  alluring, 
to  those  who  see  her  face,  but  there  is  that 


82  Lies  I 

in  her  eyes,  and  in  the  stately  carriage  of  her 
httle  head,  that  lust  dare  not  approach.  She 
calls  men  on  not  to  War  but  to  Peace,  not 
to  destruction  but  creation,  not  to  slaughter 
but  to  service.  She  speaks  of  home  and 
children,  of  art  and  music,  of  play  and 
laughter. 

She  is  tender,  clean,  and  smiling  with  the  springtime  in 

her  eyes. 
And  the  gaiety  of  goodness,  God's  true  youth  that  never 

dies. 

When  her  voice  takes  anxious  tones  she 
speaks  of  sacrifice,  the  great  sacrifice  of  life 
for  life,  she  calls  men  to  high  adventure, 
adventure  like  her  own,  when  she  stakes 
her  world  to  win  a  child.  She  is  the  great 
emotional  force  which  must  inspire  the  new 
Democracy. 

When  man  shall  live  for  women,  and 
women  live  for  men,  and  both  have  learned 
to  live  their  lives  for  God,  she  will  inspire 
men  to  bear  their  burdens  and  bear  her 
burden  too.  She  will  be  man's  comrade. 
She  will  bring  her  own  contribution  to  art, 
music,  literature,   education,   and  true  com- 


The  Lie  of  Lust  83 

merce,  and  take  her  proper  place  at  her  man's 
side.  Such  is  the  new  woman,  and  the  true 
woman  that  the  years  bring  to  her  birth. 

It  is  this  woman  that  the  monkey  man,  the 
lower  man,  hates  and  fears.  She  challenges 
his  superiority  in  strength,  defies  his  appeal 
to  brute  force,  claims  his  reverence  and 
respect,  laughs  at  his  conceit,  wonders  at  his 
stupidity,  and  calls  him  to  awake  out  of  sleep. 
Lust  knows  well  that  womanhood  will  one  day 
bring  it  to  its  death  as  a  power  in  the  world. 

It  is  this  new  woman,  this  true  woman, 
that  the  lie  of  lust  is  suffered  every  day  to 
kill.  In  her  Christ  is  ever  crucified  afresh. 
She  lives  in  every  harlot,  crucified  and  crying 
for  her  life,  and  calling  men  to  save  her  from 
herself.  She  lives  in  every  woman  in  the 
world,  lives  and  waits  her  time.  We  need 
her,  we  must  have  her.  Democracy  demands 
her,  the  future  is  all  dark  without  her.  We 
must  have  her  if  we  are  to  escape  War  and 
Poverty  and  Ignorance,  if  we  are  to  build 
the  Britain  of  our  dreams.  This  is  the  real 
curse  of  lust — it  kills  the  true  woman  that  the 
world  so  sorely  needs. 

We  underestimate  altogether  the  power  of 


84  Lies ! 

the  lie  if  we  only  reckon  that  it  brings  to  us 
the  plague  of  filthy  disease.  If  there  were  no 
such  consequence  at  all,  and  lust  was  free  of 
its  present  penalty,  it  still  would  be  the 
cursed  thing,  because  it  dwarfs  the  growth  of 
the  woman  soul,  and  the  woman  mind  for 
which  the  world  of  the  future  is  crying,  and 
without  which  our  dreams  can  never  come 
true.  If  man  is  to  march  to  his  destiny  he 
must  march  hand  in  hand  with  his  mate  ;  a 
true  mate,  honoured,  respected,  and  revered. 
Adam  can  never  enter  Paradise  alone.  To- 
gether they  must  come  to  make  God's  Angel 
sheath  his  flaming  sword.  Lust  is  unnatural. 
It  is  a  lie  on  Love.  Let  us  get  down  to  a 
real  fight,  not  with  the  result  of  it  but  with 
the  thing  itself.  Our  destiny  demands  it, 
our  women  are  crying  for  it ;  we  must  do  it. 
We  want  the  woman  of  the  future,  and  she 
lives  prisoned  in  the  woman  of  the  present — 
if  only  we  can  kill  the  lie  and  let  her  out. 

The  prayer  of  the  world  that  Christ  might  rise. 
Our  longing  for  love  that  never  dies. 
The  sobbing  of  Eve  before  Paradise 
Is  in  your  eyes, 

Your  kind  brown  eyes. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  HUMAN  SIN 

Where  does  evil  come  from  ?  What  is  its 
origin  ?  I  suppose  men  have  been  asking 
that  ever  since  they  asked  anything.  I  can 
remember  sitting  up  until  two  in  the  morning 
in  the  days  of  my  youth  trying  to  thrash  the 
question  out,  and  always  ending  up  where  I 
began — which  was  nowhere.  I  don't  know 
anything  about  it.  Nobody  knows  anything 
about  it.  Talking  about  it  is  waste  of  breath 
and  waste  of  energy,  except  that,  perhaps,  it 
provides  good  mental  gymnastics.  Perhaps 
the  beastly  thing  has  not  got  an  origin. 
Perhaps,  when  we  reach  the  final  Truth  and 
the  shadows  roll  away,  we  shall  see  that  it 
was  a  nightmare,  and  there  is  no  good  dis- 
cussing the  origin  of  nightmares. 

I  don't  know  anything  about  the  origin  of 
sin.  I  only  know  that  it  is  there.  The 
Garden  of  Eden  does  not  help  me  a  scrap. 
It  does  not  help  anybody.  It  does  not  solve 
the  problem  ;   it  only  states  a  fact.     It  states 

S5 


86  Lies  I 

it  very  picturesquely,  and  in  a  way  that 
sticks.  But  Satan  comes  into  the  Garden  as 
evil  comes  into  the  world — from  God  knows 
where.  And  perhaps  He  doesn't ;  for  perhaps 
even  Omniscience  does  not  know  the  origin  of 
nightmares.  The  story  of  the  Fallen  Angels 
and  Paradise  Lost  does  not  get  one  anywhere 
either.  It  only  shifts  the  question  farther 
back.  Because,  where  did  Satan  get  it  from  ? 
The  truth  is  that  neither  the  Bible  nor  human 
philosophy  has  anything  to  say  about  it 
at  all. 

There  are  only  two  things  certain.  First 
of  all,  that  it  is  there.  That's  dead  certain. 
And  secondly,  that  it  has  got  to  be  destroyed 
before  our  dreams  can  all  come  true.  Any 
attempt  to  found  the  true  Democracy  on 
human  nature  as  it  is,  is  doomed  to  failure. 
It  can't  be  done.  That  is  the  Truth  which 
the  builders  of  Democracy  have  got  to  face 
and  not  blink.  You  cannot  found  Democracy 
on  enlightened  or  unenlightened  self-interest- 
It  is  just  as  impossible  to  found  it  on  the 
principles  of  Bentham  as  it  is  to  found  it  on 
the  principles  of  Bolshevism.  There  is  nothing 
to  choose  between  the  Manchester  School  of 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  87 

Economics  and  the  modem  syndicalist  in 
point  of  lunacy.  Both  are  just  howls  of  dis- 
content with  a  rotten  past  which  has  bred  a 
rotten  present ;  and  neither  of  them  is  an 
intelligent  effort  to  construct  a  decent  future. 
All  theories  of  the  redemption  of  politics 
and  industry  from  the  sordid  and  the  base 
are  equally  futile  which  do  not  include,  and 
largely  depend  upon,  a  strenuous  effort  to 
redeem  man  from  sin.  So  long  as  selfishness, 
greed,  envy,  lust,  and  laziness  persist  in 
human  nature,  so  long  will  all  our  finest 
theories  and  our  most  perfect  dreams  be 
shattered  into  pieces  on  the  rocks  of  practical 
pohtics.  The  fatal  flaw  in  the  reason  of 
many  of  our  most  earnest  and  courageous 
reformers  is  that  they  do  not  allow  for  the 
presence  and  the  power  ©f  sin  in  themselves, 
and  in  the  human  material  out  of  which  they 
must  build  the  perfect  State.  If  our  myriad 
Oppositions — Socialist,  Syndicalist,  Collecti- 
vist,  Commimist,  etc. — were  to  cease  to  be 
Oppositions  and  become  Governments,  they 
would  either  bust  the  show  to  bits  or  become 
sadder  and  wiser  men.  I  do  not  beheve  that 
John  Burns  is  a  coward  or  a  traitor,  or  really 


88  Lies ! 

an  old  and  tired  man,  but  that  he  is  a  man 
who,  Hke  M.  Briand  in  France,  and  Signor 
Labriola  in  Italy,  learned  late  in  life  the 
difference  between  theory  and  practice,  and 
the  power  of  human  sin.  All  their  efforts  to 
form  the  perfect  State  out  of  sinful  and  im- 
perfect man  by  short  cuts  which  do  not  make 
him  any  less  sinful  or  any  less  imperfect  in 
himself,  can  only  end  in  destroying  what 
freedom  we  have  got,  and  landing  us  back 
into  some  form  of  ghastly  tyranny.  If  there 
is  a  lesson  that  is  written  in  letters  of  blood 
and  flame  over  the  whole  history  of  man,  it  is 
that  you  cannot  make  silken  purses  out  of 
sows'  ears,  or  build  the  New  Jerusalem  out  of 
sinners  unredeemed. 

Man  can  only  advance  towards  the  real 
Democracy  as  man  advances  in  his  conquest 
of  evil  and  his  victory  over  himself. 

It  is  perhaps  because  I  am  a  modern  man, 
or  perhaps  because  I  am  a  modernist — 
although  Fm  blest  if  I  really  know  what  that 
means — that  I  find  the  most  helpful  way  of 
thinking  about  evil  is  the  modern  way  of 
looking  upon  it  as  the  remains  of  the  monkey 
in  me.     I  don't  pretend  that  it  is  an  adequate 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  89 

account  of  the  origin  of  evil ;  but,  then,  there 
isn't  one.  It's  just  as  good  an  explanation 
as  the  Fall — better,  because  if  it  is  not  true, 
it  is  founded  on  facts  and  not  fables.  I  have 
said  before  that  I  am  not  a  monkey,  although 
I  know  that  appearances  are  against  me,  and 
that  my  face  demands  the  presence  of  a  tail. 
I  am  not  a  monkey,  but  there  is  a  monkey  in 
me,  and  a  tiger,  and  a  snake,  in  fact  a  whole 
blessed  menagerie,  and  that  is  what  I  have 
to  kill.  The  mistake  that  those  who  hold 
this  idea  have  made  is  to  think  that  because 
sin  is  the  remains  of  the  beast  in  man,  that 
therefore  it  need  not  be  killed  ;  that  it  is  not 
positively  evil  but  is  only  natural,  and  there- 
fore inevitable.  Now  that  is  wrong.  Because 
the  monkey  in  me  is  something  much  lower 
than  any  decent  monkey  that  climbs  trees  and 
eats  nuts.  It  is  a  beastly  thing  that  uses  the 
higher  powers  that  I  possess  to  serve  its  own 
bestial  purposes.  Lust  in  a  monkey  is  per- 
fectly natural  and  clean,  and  goes  forward  in 
a  decent  fashion  to  the  propagation  of  its 
species.  Lust  in  me  is  an  unclean  and  un- 
natural thing,  which  invents  things  to  secure 
pleasure   without    pain,    and    to    hinder   the 


go  Lies  I 

propagation  of  my  species.  It  fills  the  world 
with  rotten  diseases,  and  keeps  to  minister  to 
its  needs  a  host  of  syphilitic  slaves.  Anger, 
which  in  a  noble  beast  is  just  the  instinct  of 
self-protection,  becomes  in  me  a  scheming, 
envious,  jealous  frame  of  mind  which  uses  all 
my  higher  powers  to  work  my  fellow's  ill.  In 
fact,  the  beast  in  me  is  not  a  beast  but  a 
bestial  abortion,  and  has  got  to  be  destroyed. 
The  truth  is  that  a  monkey  with  a  monkey's 
brain  is  a  tolerable  thing  in  the  world,  but  a 
monkey  with  a  man's  brain  is  the  devil  him- 
self, and  has  got  to  be  scotched.  And  the 
bigger  the  brain  the  bigger  the  devil.  Sin  is 
not  natural  to  man.  It  is  the  vermiform 
appendix  of  human  nature,  and  has  got  to  be 
cut  out. 

All  true  democrats  ought  to  remember  this, 
that  if  it  is  true  that  you  cannot  form  an  Ai 
State  physically  out  of  a  C3  population,  it  is 
also  true  that  you  cannot  form  an  Ai  State 
at  all  out  of  a  population  that  is  suffering 
from  moral  appendicitis.  Sin  has  got  to  be 
cured.  It  is  often  stated  that  if  you  alter  and 
amend  men's  environment,  if  you  regulate 
marriage  on  eugenic  principles,  if  you  abolish 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  91 

the  capitalist  system  of  industry — in  fact,  if 
you  make  a  new  world,  you  will  thereby  cure 
sin  and  make  new  men.  The  truth  is  that 
only  new  men,  or  men  that  are  becoming  new, 
can  make  this  new  world.  Only  new  men 
can  make  a  new  environment ;  only  new  men 
could  stand  marriage  regulated  on  eugenic 
principles — (I  am  not  sure  that  they  will  ever 
become  as  new  as  that ;  if  they  ever  do, 
thank  God  I  will  be  dead)  ;  only  new  men — 
and  this  is  very  important — could  possibly 
work  any  other  system  but  the  capitalist 
system  of  industry.  So  long  as  industry  is 
worked  entirely  on  motives  of  self-interest, 
it  is  the  only  system  that  has  ever  existed  or 
could  ever  exist  with  any  hope  of  success. 
No  one  wants  to  see  it  destroyed  more  than 
I  do,  but  I  have  not  the  slightest  faith  in  its 
being  destroyed,  except  to  land  us  in  some- 
thing far  worse,  unless  its  destruction  is 
carried  out  by  new  men. 

Man  as  he  is,  with  the  beast  still  in  him, 
cannot  make  a  world  fit  for  real  men  to 
dwell  in.  He  must  be  changed,  and  as  he  is 
changed  so  can  he  change  the  world.  This 
idea  that  man  can  be  redeemed  by  Act  of 
4* 


92 


Lies  I 


Parliament,  by  organisations  and  committees, 
is  a  dangerous  falsehood,  and  all  true  demo- 
crats must  beware  of  it.  Human  nature  is 
not  all  right  as  it  is,  and  it  is  ruinous  to  act 
as  if  it  were.  It  only  means  in  the  end  that, 
after  a  long  journey  of  change  and  revolu- 
tion, we  will  find,  as  travellers  in  the  desert 
do,  that  we  have  been  walking  in  a  circle, 
and  have  come  back  to  where  we  started  from, 
which  is  the  exploitation  of  the  weak  by  the 
strong,  of  the  stupid  by  the  clever,  and, 
finalty,  of  the  poor  by  the  rich.  The  roots  of 
our  inequalities  lie  in  human  nature  itself. 

The  idea  that  human  nature  is  all  right, 
and  that  sin  does  not  matter,  is  a  reaction 
from  the  opposite  falsehood  that  human 
nature  is  hopelessly  and  inevitably  corrupt, 
and  that  all  the  sin  and  sorrow  in  the  world 
is  due  to  man's  wilful  misuse  of  the  powers 
that  God  has  given  him.  For  this  error  the 
Christian  Church,  with  its  teaching  on  the 
Fall  of  Man,  is  largely  responsible,  because, 
although  it  taught  that  man  could  be  re- 
deemed from  sin,  it  shifted  his  redemption 
into  a  future  world,  and  taught  that  the 
Cross  of  Calvary  saved  men,   not  so  much 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  93 

from  the  power  of  sin  in  this  hfe  as  from  the 
pains  of  Hell  in  the  next.  It  taught  men,  as 
it  were,  to  abandon  earth  as  a  bad  job  and 
prepare  their  souls  for  Heaven. 

The  Nineteenth  Century  thinkers  and  re- 
formers revolted  from  this.  They  perceived 
the  enormous  influence  of  heredity  and  en- 
vironment upon  human  character,  and  they 
refused  to  accept  this  burden  of  the  full 
responsibility  which  Christian  theology  seemed 
to  lay  upon  the  shoulders  of  men.  Their 
rebellion  was  very  largely  justified,  because 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  doctrine  of  human 
depravity  was  for  many  years  a  curse  to 
education  and  a  bar  to  human  progress.  It 
was  in  a  very  real  sense  a  blasphemy  against 
God,  a  failure  of  faith  in  His  power,  and  a 
failure  of  faith  in  His  love.  Man  is  not,  and 
cannot  by  any  stretch  of  imagination  be  sup- 
posed to  be,  entirely  free.  Freedom  of  will  is 
not  a  thing  which  he  fully  possesses,  but 
which  he  is,  under  the  guidance  of  God, 
growing  to  possess.  The  doctrine  of  Original 
Sin  did  of  course  limit  free  will,  but  instead 
of  drawing  attention  to  the  effect  of  environ- 
ment   and    the    hope    of   improving   human 


94  Lies  I 

nature  by  altering  the  environment,  it  crippled 
effort  by  teaching  man's  total  depravity  and 
had  an  evil  effect  on  education,  penal  codes 
and  the  treatment  of  criminals,  and  all  efforts 
at  social  reform. 

Shall  I  be  born  of  a  mother  pure 

Or  born  of  a  slut  in  a  filthy  sewer  ? 

Shall  I  be  fed  at  a  healthy  breast 

Or  doped  with  gin  at  "  The  Traveller's  Rest  "  ? 

Mother  comes  in  our  every  choice, 

And  father  speaks  in  the  still  small  voice. 

The  scales  are  weighted  for  us  at  birth. 

No  man  starts  free  for  his  race  on  earth ! 

I  cannot  choose  what  my  land  shall  be — 

India,  Britain,  or  Germany. 

The  set  traditions  of  my  own  race 

All  have  in  my  choosing  soul  their  place. 

Forgotten  sinners  around  me  stand 

To  guide  and  govern  my  choosing  hand. 

Even  your  Bible  accepts  all  that. 

For  it  blurts  it  out,  and  tells  us  fiat 

It  is  the  rule  of  the  jealous  God 

To  visit  and  punish  with  iron  rod 

The  sons — for  the  sins  their  fathers  sinned. 

So  when  this  freedom  of  choice  is  skinned 

There's  not  much  left — it's  an  unfair  choice. 

So  very  small  is  the  still  small  voice. 

That  is  the  Truth.     We  must  reckon,  in 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  95 

thinking  of  sin,  on  the  enormous  power  of 
heredity  and  environment  to  mould  and 
fashion  human  character.  It  is  true  that  a 
man's  ancestors  are  part  of  himself,  that  we 
are  the  children  of  the  ages.  It  is  true  to  a 
limited  extent,  physically,  so  far  as  our  bodies 
are  concerned.  It  is  true  to  an  enormous 
extent,  spiritually,  as  far  as  our  souls  are 
concerned — not  that  we  inherit  spiritual  ideas, 
not  that  there  is  any  inheritance  of  acquired 
characteristics,  but  that  we  are,  whether  we 
like  it  or  not,  born  into  a  world  which  has  a 
spiritual  history,  born  into  a  world  that  has  a 
past  which  has  enormously  contributed  to 
the  making  of  the  present.  We  are  born  into 
a  world  of  social  traditions,  social  conventions, 
and  stereotyped  systems,  and  that  world  has 
a  tremendous  and  inevitable  power  to  make 
or  mar  our  characters.  There  is  a  power  of 
heredity,  and  if  environment  be  interpreted 
in  its  wide  and  proper  meaning  of  our  whole 
environment,  including  our  spiritual  surround- 
ings, the  books  we  read,  the  teachers  we  sit 
under,  the  companions  we  live  with,  the 
power  of  environment  is  more  evident  and 
more  inevitable  still. 


g6  Lies ! 

It  is  obviously  false  to  lay  upon  the  indi- 
vidual man  the  whole  burden  of  responsibility 
for  the  suffering  and  misery  that  he  endures/ 
Man  is  right,  as  Job  was  right,  in  refusing  to 
abandon  altogether  his  own  integrity.  Every 
one  should  read  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells's  great  new 
book.  The  Undying  Fire.  It  puts  this  truth 
in  the  finest  and  most  inspiring  language. 
Man  has  rightly  rejected  the  wretched  com- 
forters who  consoled  him  when  he  was  in  Hell 
with  the  bland  assurance  that  it  was  his  own 
fault.  To  say  that  a  man  is  fully  and  com- 
pletely responsible  for  his  actions  is  to  say 
far  too  much ;  but  if  you  go  off  on  the  other 
tack  and  proclaim  that  men  are  the  helpless 
products  of  heredity  and  environment,  the 
mere  tools  of  forces  greater  than  themselves, 
you  strike  a  blow  at  the  deepest  and  most 
noble  of  man's  instincts — that  is,  his  instinct 
of  freedom,  the  feeling  that  when  he  acts  it 
is  he  that  acts,  and  that  he  is  responsible  in 

*  The  Catholic  Church  has  of  course  never  done  this  formally, 
as  she  has  always  taught  the  doctrine  of  Original  Sin,  but  the 
efEect  of  that  doctrine  was  largely  neutralised  by — 

1.  Her  tendency  to  postpone  redemption  to  the  next  world, 

2.  The  degradation  of  the  doctrine  of  Original  Sin  into  the 

doctrine  of  human  depravity. 


Democracy  and  Human  Sin  97 


some  measure  for  his  actions.  If  you  preached 
that  doctrine,  and  convinced  all  men  of  it — 
(which,  thank  God,  you  could  not  do) — you 
would  kill  God,  shatter  the  stars,  and  put 
an  end  to  the  universe.  You  would,  in  fact, 
quench  the  unquenchable  fire. 

The  fire  from  which  action  proceeds  is  our 
faith  in  our  partial  freedom.  When  the 
Christian  beats  his  breast  and  cries,  ''  I  have 
sinned  against  Thee  by  my  fault,  my  own 
fault,  my  own  most  grievous  fault,''  he  is 
repeating  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  universe. 
Sin  is  there,  and  sin  is  sin — that  is,  it  is 
absolutely  evil,  utterly  wrong,  and  has  got 
to  be  destroyed.  And  it  can  be  destroyed. 
The  seed  of  freedom  is  there.  That  is  our 
most  precious  instinct.  And  freedom  can  be 
made  perfect.  That  is  the  faith  by  which 
alone  we  can  live.  Destroy  that  faith  and 
you  destroy  us.  But  even  as  we  stand  and 
confess  our  faith  in  the  coming  of  perfect 
freedom  there  is  a  universal  instinct  in  us 
almost  as  strong  as  the  instinct  of  freedom 
itself — that  we  need  another  power,  not  our- 
selves, a  power  that  transcends  and  lies 
beyond   us,   if   we  are  to  attain  to   perfect 


98  Lies  I 

freedom.  And  that  instinct,  too,  is  necessary 
to  life.  Kill  it,  and  you  kill  man.  For  man 
needs  that  power.  He  must  have  it.  He 
must  have  God. 


LIES  AND  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD 

We  don't  like  calling  ourselves  miserable 
sinners  in  these  days.  Men  feel  that  this 
continual  moaning  about  themselves  is  un- 
manly. Very  often  it  is  sheer  hypocrisy,  and 
when  it  is  sincere  it  is  bad  for  morale,  it's 
depressing.  If  we  can't  be  saintly,  for  God's 
sake  let's  be  cheerful.  What's  the  good  of 
chanting  long  Litanies  that  end  up  with 
''  have  mercy  upon  us  miserable  sinners  "  ? 
It  only  gives  one  the  hump,  and  God  knows 
there  is  enough  in  life  to  give  a  man  the 
hump  without  adding  to  it  and  harping  on 
it.  It's  a  depressing  business,  and  depression 
means  the  death  of  effort  and  the  dimming 
of  hope  and  courage.  There  is  some  truth  in 
that.  But  it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  You 
see  this  continual  repentance  has  its  brave 
and  honest  side.  At  its  best  it  means  that 
men  are  so  sure  that  joy  can  be  obtained  that 
they  are  not  afraid  to  acknowledge  their 
sorrow.    They  are  so  certain  of  Christ's  remedy 

99 


100  Lies ! 

for  sin  that  they  can  look  sin  in  the  face. 
They  are  so  convinced  that  Hfe  is  eternal  that 
they  can  continually  remember  death  and 
never  be  cast  down.  In  fact,  they  are  so 
sure  of  God  that  they  can  defy  the  devil. 
The  modern  ''  O  let  us  be  joyful/'  ''  Pack  up 
your  troubles  in  your  old  kit-bag  and  sraile, 
smile,  smile  "  attitude  is  not  really  a  happy 
one.  Your  tail  must  be  well  down  before 
you  need  to  be  told  to  keep  it  up  !  You  don't 
tell  happy  people  to  keep  up  their  spirits. 
The  real  objection  to  a  lot  of  our  modern 
gaiety  is  that  it  is  not  gay.  We  are  not 
really  gay  because  we  are  not  good.  We  do 
not  dare  to  live,  we  run  away  from  life.  We 
dare  not  remember,  so  we  school  ourselves  to 
forget.  We  try  to  believe  that  the  world's 
all  right.  Let's  have  plenty  of  innocent 
amusement,  and  less  grousing  about  ourselves. 
Let's  have  more  Jazz  dances,  and  less  of  the 
songs  of  New  Jerusalem  and  the 

O  Paradise,  O  Paradise, 
'Tis  weary  waiting  here 

touch.  If  we  niust  have  a  religion,  let's  have 
a  cheery  religion.     Let's  have  parsons  that 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  loi 

are  more  like  human  beings  and  less  like 
lugubrious  black-beetles.  Let's  sing  brave 
battle-songs  of  hope  and  not  these  cowardly 
misereres  made  up  by  mediaeval  women- 
haters  with  a  bee  in  their  bonnets,  and 
disordered  livers. 

The  battle  of  life  is  a  matter  of  morale, 
like  the  Battle  of  Ypres.  What  we  have  to 
do  is  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  troops. 
This  continual  grovelHng  and  grousing  is  no 
bon  for  the  troops.  It  spells  defeat,  when 
what  we  want  is  defiance. 

Well,  cheeriness  is  a  great  thing.  Christ 
saw  that.  He  was  always  saying  Cheer-i-o. 
It  runs  like  a  melody  through  the  music  of 
His  life.  Guido's  Ecce  Homo  is  not  the  whole 
Christ.  I  doubt  if  ever  man's  eyes  looked 
upon  that  face.  It  may  have  been  the  face 
that  in  the  moonhght  shone  ghastly  white 
in  the  garden  of  His  agony,  it  may  have  been 
the  face  that  even  the  sun  was  veiled  from 
seeing  as  it  was  lifted  in  prayer  from  the 
Cross — but  it  was  not  the  face  of  Him  who 
cried,  "  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation, 
but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world."     "  Son,  be  of  good  cheer,   thy  sins 


102  Lies  I 

are  forgiven  thee.*'  Christ,  the  Man  of  many 
sorrows,  was  the  Man  of  one  abiding  joy. 
Joy  was  the  dynamic  by  which  His  sorrows 
were  born  without  breaking.  There  are  two 
sides  to  every  crucifix  :  ''Go  see  if  there  be 
any  sorrow  hke  unto  His  sorrow,"  and  "  Go 
see  if  there  be  any  joy  Hke  unto  His  joy, 
which  bears  the  burden  of  such  sorrow  un- 
broken to  the  end/'  Cheeriness  is  a  great 
thing,  but  it  is  not  everything.  It  all  depends 
what  it  is  based  on. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  a  cheery  man,  but 
it  is  a  bad  thing  to  be  a  cheerful  ostrich, 
that  buries  its  head  in  the  sand  and  smiles 
with  its  back  feathers.  Cheeriness  based  on 
Truth  is  good.  Cheeriness  based  on  hes  is 
bad. 

It  is  deceptive  this  comparison  of  the 
battle  of  life  to  th'^^  Battle  of  the  Somme. 
You  see  you  can't  fight  the  two  on  the  same 
methods.  It's  no  use  taking  off  your  coat 
to  the  devil,  because  the  dirty  dog  doesn't 
stop  to  be  hit.  You  can't  destroy  Prussian- 
ism  by  cheerfully  killing  Prussians,  or  sin 
by  beating  sinners  with  a  grin.  That  is  one 
of   the    oldest   lies   in    the   world — belief   in 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  103 

Force.  Force  is  futile  when  you  come  to 
deal  with  realities.  You  can't  cure  rabies 
by  kilUng  mad  dogs,  no  matter  how  cheer- 
fully you  do  it.  Mad  dogs  when  they  get 
loose  must  be  kicked  or  shot  or  destroyed 
somehow,  and  it  requires  grit  and  gumption 
to  kill  them.  But  to  cure  rabies  demands 
grit  and  gumption  of  another  sort.  That 
battle  must  be  fought  out  in  a  laboratory 
by  men  armed  with  patience  and  scientific 
knowledge,  and  not  in  the  public  street  by 
men  armed  with  ammunition  boots  and 
rifles.  Trying  to  kill  sin  by  force  is  as  futile 
as  hunting  influenza  bugs  with  a  blunderbuss. 
What  we  did  during  the  War  was  to  kill 
mad  dogs.  What  we  have  to  do  now  is  to 
cure  rabies.  Both  tasks  are  matters  of 
morale,  everything  is  a  matter  of  morale, 
but  of  very  different  kinds  of  morale.  The 
first  need  of  a  fighting  soldier  is  to  forget, 
the  first  need  of  a  working  scientist  is  to 
remember.  A  soldier  must  forget  facts  if 
he  is  to  fight,  a  scientist  must  remember 
them  if  he  is  to  succeed.  I  know  something 
of  the  methods  used  to  keep  up  fighting 
morale.     They  consisted  very  largely  in  help- 


104  ^^^^ ' 

ing  men  to  forget,  in  distracting  their 
thoughts,  in  amusing,  deluding,  and  drugging 
them.  Our  horror  was.  Lest  we  remember 
— ^lest  we  remember.  They  were  necessary 
methods  ;  these  things  had  to  be.  I  did  my 
share  of  it,  singing  comic  songs  when  I  had 
just  taken  a  hundred  funerals,  talking 
nonsense  with  a  dead  pal  huddled  up  beside 
me  with  a  lump  of  shrapnel  in  his  stomach 
and  wild  agony  in  his  still  wide-open  eyes, 
going  over  the  top  on  a  rum  ration  and  the 
hope  of  a  blighty.  It  had  to  be.  I  don't  cry 
out  against  any  of  it,  not  even  the  rum 
ration  ;  IVe  had  it  myself.  We  had  to  stop 
mad  dogs  that  ran  amuck.  It  was  necessary, 
then,  this  drugging  of  ourselves.  It  was 
necessary  then,  but  it  is  fatal  now.  We 
cannot  live  on  drugs.  That  was  not  life,  it 
was  bedlam — the  world  was  mad.  We  stood 
at  the  altar  of  death  with  the  wine  cup  in 
our  hands  and  cried  to  our  comrades  in  hell : 
''  The  world  is  mad  and  meaningless,  and  all 
the  Gods  are  dead ;  your  brothers  lie  around 
you  crying  in  their  agony,  but  heaven  does 
not  heed ;  your  duty  is  to  kill  and  kill,  to 
carry    flaming    death    and    dire    destruction 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  105 

with  you  as  you  go,  to  wipe  your  bloody 
bayonet  clean,  then  make  it  red  again  ; 
kindness  is  cruelty,  and  mercy  is  madness ; 
drink — drink — drink  deep — lest  ye  remember 
that  you  are  still  men,  and  so  your  strong 
hands  falter  and  your  great  hearts  fail/' 

That  was  very  largely  the  Gospel  of  mili- 
tary morale — it  had  to  be — and  will  have  to 
be  so  long  as  War  continues.  But  it  is  no 
gospel  for  life.  At  the  altar  of  hfe  stands 
another  figure  with  a  chalice  in  His  hands, 
and  He  cries  across  the  world — "  Drink  ye 
all  of  this,  for  this  is  My  blood  of  the  New 
Testament  which  is  shed  for  you  and  for 
many  for  the  remission  of  sins.''  We  are  up 
against  realities  now,  and  we  must  remember 
and  not  forget. 

For  purposes  of  fighting  morale  it  was 
assumed,  and  had  to  be  assumed,  that  all 
Prussians  were  devils  and  all  Britons  saints. 
'*  Our  cause  was  just,"  and  a  man  was  only 
bad  as  he  failed  the  Cause  and  did  not  fight. 
A  man  might  be  a  lustful,  greedy,  selfish  brute, 
but  if  he  were  a  good  soldier,  no  saint  who  in 
that  time  of  terror  sheltered  behind  his  sacrifice 
could  throw  a  single  stone,  no  saint  wanted  to. 


io6  Lies ! 

But  it  is  different  now.  We  can  make  no 
great  assumptions.  We  must  face  the  facts. 
Military  morale  is  not  civil  morale.  A  man 
may  be  a  good  soldier  and  a  rotten  citizen. 
It  is  easier  to  kill  devils  than  to  build  demo- 
cracies. During  the  War  we  deliberately 
bamboozled  ourselves  about  ourselves.  Now 
we  must  deliberately  refuse  to  be  bamboozled 
about  ourselves  or  anything  else.  We  have 
signed  a  Peace  Treaty,  but  we  have  not  made 
a  Peace.  That  remains  to  be  done.  The 
Peace  Treaty,  and  the  League  of  Nations 
which  it  sets  up,  are  by  themselves  and  in 
themselves  about  as  much  protection  against 
War  as  a  wall  of  tissue  paper  against  a  mad 
bull.  Prussianism  is  not  really  peculiar  to 
Prussia ;  it  lives  in  Britain  too,  it  lives  in  our 
own  souls,  and  there  it  must  be  killed  before 
we  can  make  the  world  safe  for  Democracy, 
or  Democracy  safe  for  the  world.  I  do  not 
want  to  revive  the  droning  misereres  of  the 
mediaeval  Church,  but  we  must  face  the  facts 
for  which  the  miserere  stood — the  two  great 
facts — that  man  is  sinful,  and  that  man  needs 
God  to  save  him  from  his  sin.  If  we  say 
that  we  have  no  sin,  we  are  a  pack  of  blind 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  107 

deluded  fools,  and  have  got  right  off  the  tracks 
— we  deceive  ourselves,  but  no  one  else,  and 
are  strangers  to  the  Truth.  If  we  confess  our 
sins — drag  them  out  to  light  and  look  them  in 
the  face — it  is  the  eternal  law  of  life  laid  down 
by  Him  who  made  it,  that  He  should  break 
the  power  of  sin  and  give  us  strength  to  rise. 
It  is  this  double  fact  of  God  and  our  need  of 
God  that  popular  rehgion  ignores  and  popular 
politics  deny.  Popular  politics  seek  to  build 
a  perfect  world  by  Act  of  Parliament  or  by 
means  of  the  universal  strike.  Popular  religion 
seeks  the  solution  in  a  Goodwill  that  is  not 
God's  Will,  because  it  has  no  God.  God,  as 
a  practical  proposition  and  a  working  power, 
does  not  enter  into  the  popular  programme  at 
aU. 

The  man  in  the  street  says  frankly :  "  I 
don't  profess  to  be  religious.  I  don't  know 
much  about  it.  It's  a  queer  business.  My 
religion  is  to  do  to  others  as  I  would  be  done 
by.  It  doesn't  matter  what  a  man  believes 
so  long  as  he  does  what's  right.  I'm  not  an 
atheist,  mind  you.  I  believe  in  the  Supreme 
Being,  but  I  can't  see  what  difference  religion 
makes.    There's  a  lot  of  hypocrisy  about  it. 


io8  Lies  I 

Fve  known  chaps  go  to  Church  on  Sunday 
and  do  you  down  for  twopence  on  Monday 
morning/'  Now  what  all  that  amounts  to  is 
this,  ''  Do  your  duty  to  your  neighbour,  and 
your  duty  to  God  will  take  care  of  itself."  The 
popular  version  of  the  two  great  command- 
ments would  turn  Christ's  version  upside  down 
and  say  :  "  The  first  and  great  commandment 
is,  '  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,' 
and  the  second  is  like  unto  it :  'If  you  are 
inclined  that  way,  and  want  to  be  religious, 
thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  more  or  less 
— and  it's  safer  less  than  more,  because  too 
much  rehgion  drives  men  potty,  and  makes 
them  cranks.'  " 

To  a  large  extent  this  popular  "  Chris- 
tianity "  is  a  revolt  from  the  deeper  and  more 
blatant  blasphemy  which  bade  men  love  God 
— go  to  Church — support  religion — sing  hymns 
and  say  prayers,  and  their  duty  to  their 
neighbours  would  look  after  itself.  It  is  a 
revolt  from  the  religion  which  damned  souls 
to  build  churches,  sweated  work-people  to 
endow  charities,  and  manufactured  prostitutes 
by  low  wages  to  build  rescue  homes  for  fallen 
women  and  buy  a  peerage.     It  is  the  rejection 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  109 

by  the  people  of  the  rehgion  of  the  classes  who 
patronised  God  as  the  best  of  all  policemen, 
the  power  that  kept  poor  people  in  their  places 
by  threats  of  hell  and  promises  of  heaven. 
People  felt  that  it  was  better  to  have  no  God  at 
all  than  to  worship  a  policeman,  and  I  entirely 
agree.  But  it  is  only  by  contrast  with  this 
caricature  of  Christianity  that  popular  religion 
can  be  called  Christian.  It  is  only  because  we 
have  had  so  much  of  the  Gospel  of  Jeremy 
Bentham,  "  Each  man  for  himself  and  God  for 
us  all,  as  the  elephant  said  when  it  danced 
among  the  chickens,''  that  we  can  still  regard 
the  Gospel  of  Godless  goodwill  as  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Any  religion  which  does  not 
put  God  first — far  and  away  first — has  no  real 
claim  to  be  Christian.  You  cannot  change  the 
order  of  the  two  Commandments  and  retain 
the  Truth.  It  is  shallow  nonsense  to  say  that 
it  does  not  matter  what  a  man  believes  so  long 
as  he  does  what's  right.  A  man  cannot  act 
right  unless  he  believes  right,  because  men 
always  act  according  to  their  belief.  A  man 
may  not  act  according  to  the  belief  he  professes, 
but  he  will  always  act  according  to  the  belief 
he  really  holds — he  cannot  help  it.     All  men 


no  Lies  I 

have  a  God  or  Gods,  even  if  they  are  only  idols. 
A  man's  God  is  what  he  believes  in  and  lives 
for.  The  oldest  religion,  and  the  most  popular 
religion  still,  is  the  worship  of  many  Gods. 
Man  is  a  natural  polytheist.  The  heathen  idols 
do  not  die,  although  their  images  be  broken 
and  all  the  temples  be  cast  down.  Venus, 
Mars,  and  Bacchus  still  live  to  challenge  Christ. 
We  are  fools  if  we  suppose  the  heathen  ever 
bows  him  down  to  wood  and  stone.  Men  have 
always  worshipped  the  powers  and  passions 
which  they  felt  to  be  greater  than  themselves. 
Venus  stood  for  that  life  force  which  vanquishes 
our  reason  and  drives  us  on  to  propagate  new 
life — the  force  that  brings  Nirvana  in  a  beloved 
woman's  arms.  Mars  stood  for  the  tremendous 
passion  that  sweeps  hke  a  storm  through  a 
people,  and  calls  them  out  to  War.  Greater 
than  love  of  wife  or  child,  greater  than  con- 
science, apparently  greater  than  God,  this 
power  of  passion  still  remains  to  turn  men  into 
beasts.  Bacchus  stood  for  the  power  of 
intoxication  and  ecstasy  that  drink  possesses. 
He  bade  men  drink  and  drown  their  troubles, 
their  weakness,  and  their  fear  in  the  magic  cup 
that  held  laughter,  strength,  and  courage  to 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  iii 

their  lips.  Who  that  knows  our  modern  world 
can  say  the  ancient  Gods  are  dead.  It  still  is 
a  battle  between  the  one  God  and  the  many, 
between  the  high  and  holy  passion  for  purity, 
justice,  and  truth,  and  the  gusts  of  lower 
passions  that  sweep  away  our  manhood  and 
make  us  lower  than  the  beasts.  It  is  battle 
between  the  passion  which  includes  and  in- 
spires reason  and  these  many  passions  that 
destroy  it.  A  man  must  always  act  upon  his 
neighbour  according  to  his  master-passion — his 
real  behef. 

He  must  always  love  his  neighbour  as  he 
loves  his  God.  That  your  love  of  your 
neighbour  depends  for  its  force  on  the  love  of 
your  God  is  not  a  Christian  dogma  but  a  law 
of  social  life,  as  the  law  of  gravity  is  of  natural 
life,  just  as  universad  and  just  as  inevitable. 
You  must  love  yourself  as  you  love  your  God, 
and  your  neighbour  as  yourself — that  is  the 
law  of  hfe.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  did  not  make  it. 
It  was  made  when  man  was  made.  You  see  it 
in  action  everywhere.  A  man  who  worships 
drink  gives  his  neighbour  beer ;  the  man  who 
worships  lust  gives  his  neighbour  food  for  lust 
to  feed  on ;  the  man  who  worships  money 


112  Lies ! 

gives  his  neighbour  not  money,  but  the  love 
of  it. 

You  must  spread  your  master-passion,  and 
your  master-passion  is  your  God.  If  you  have 
no  passions  of  any  sort,  then  you  have  no  Hfe 
to  hve  and  none  to  give  away.  You  are  not  a 
man  but  just  a  bit  of  drift-wood  on  the  sea  of 
hfe,  tossed  this  way  and  that,  without  a  guide 
because  you  are  in  truth  without  a  God.  You 
can  give  your  neighbour  nothing  but  your  own 
futihty.  If  you  are  a  full-blooded  animal  man 
with  many  passions  you  will  spread  them  all 
inevitably,  but  most  of  all  you  will  spread  your 
master-passion,  the  one  you  really  live  for — 
the  one  that  is  your  God. 

Into  this  maelstrom  of  conflicting  passions 
Christ  comes,  not  bringing  a  new  law,  but  a 
new  passion — a  new  God.  Over  against  the 
multitude  of  Gods  that  men  have  always 
worshipped,  the  multitude  of  many  passions 
and  desires  by  which  they  have  been  swayed 
this  way  and  that,  He  dares  to  set  a  new 
passion,  which  He  declares  must  master  all  the 
rest  and  make  them  willing  slaves  if  the  world 
is  to  be  saved,  and  that  passion  is  the  passion 
for  Himself.     He  claims  to  be,  not  the  servant 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  113 

or  the  prophet  or  the  preacher  of  God,  but  to 
be  God — the  very  image  and  the  perfect 
revelation  to  men  in  human  terms  of  man's 
true  God,  who  claims  the  passionate  devotion 
of  the  human  race  by  right  of  the  eternal 
Truth. 

That  is  the  Christian  religion — the  master 
passion  for  Jesus  Christ.  Without  that  master 
passion  for  the  perfect  man  who  showed  us 
God,  our  love  of  our  neighbour  is  a  thing  of 
little  worth.  Goodwill  that  is  not  fired  by 
it  is  not  strong  enough  to  meet  and  conquer 
the  beast  that  lives  in  the  heart  of  the  world. 
Goodwill  cannot  raise  us,  inspire  us,  drive  us 
on  to  sacrifice  and  suffering  for  right,  and 
that  is  what  we  need  to  build  the  better  world. 
Codes  of  laws  and  moral  teaching  will  not  do 
it.  Put  cold  codes  of  morals  between  me  and 
a  master  passion,  and  I  will  smash  the  miser- 
able code  to  pieces  and  get  me  to  my  God. 
Put  a  law  between  me  and  my  love,  and  love 
will  laugh  your  law  to  scorn,  and  cast  me 
into  the  arms  of  my  God.  Laws  and  moral 
teachings  are  not  strong  enough  for  men. 
St.  Paul  knew  that.  Laws  and  codes,  however 
perfect  in  themselves,  are  no  good  for  men — 


114  Lies ! 

they  have  no  power  of  life ;  trying  to  hold 
men  with  laws  is  hke  driving  mad  horses  with 
sUk  threads.     If  there  had  been  a  law  given 
which  could  have  produced  hfe,  then,  of  course, 
righteousness  would  have  come  by  the  law. 
Moral  codes   and  beautiful  philosophies   are 
futile,  you  can  only  fight  the  old  gods  in  the 
power  of  the  new  God.     You  can  only  fight  the 
idols  in  the  power  of  the  Christ.     Are  moral 
teachings  going  to  battle  with  the  lust  for 
women    and   the   love   of   gold?     Are    they 
going    to    conquer   hatred,    envy,    jealousy? 
How  white-hvered  and  cold  a  man  must  be  to 
suppose  they  could. 

Just  for  a  night  I  loved  her. 

Lost  in  her  laughing  eyes ; 
God,  can  a  man  go  hungry, 

Hungry  for  paradise  ? 

When  Venus  calls  us  as  the  shadows  fall 
to  easy  heaven  and  certain  peace,  when  the 
hoarse  and  blood-choked  voice  of  Mars  rings 
out  across  the  world  and  calls  the  nations 
out  to  war,  when  Bacchus  stands  and  offers 
us  the  red  wine  of  forgetfulness— what  can 
save  us  ?  What  can  save  the  ordinary  man 
from  damning  his  soul  and  destroying  his 


Lies  and  the  Love  of  God  115 


world  ?  The  piping  of  professors  ?  The  books 
of  the  philosophers  ?  The  knowledge  of  the 
scientists  ?  Vague  goodwill  and  good-nature  ? 
You  cold-blooded  saints  of  the  study,  have  you 
ever  walked  in  the  streets  ?  Have  you  ever 
lived  ?  Only  a  passion  can  conquer  a  passion 
— we  must  have  God. 


LIES,  AND  THEOLOGY  AND 
RELIGION 

The   Christian   religion  is,   and  always   has 
been,  the  simplest  thing  in  all  the  world— a 
passionate  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ.     A  pas- 
sionate devotion  to  Jesus  Christ  as  a  person, 
not  of  the  past  but  of  the  present,  not  among 
the   dead   but   among   the   living;  to   Jesus 
Christ  as  an  ever-present  Comrade,  Captain, 
Guide,    and    God:  as    a    Comrade,    clinging 
closer  than  a  brother ;  as  a  Captain,  calling 
men  out  to  lives  of  service  and  self-sacrifice ; 
as  a  Guide,  the  one  thing  certain  in  a  world 
of   vast   uncertainties;  and   as    a    God,    the 
supreme  expression  of  the  final  truth—"  the 
very  Image  of  the  Father  "— '  through  whom 
aU  things  were  made,  and  without  whom  was 
not  anything  made  that  has  been  made/' 

AU  sects  and  all  ages  of  real  Christians, 
however  much  their  theologies  have  differed, 
have  reaUy  been  at  one  in  this,  their  love  of 
and  their  devotion  to  the  ever-present  Christ. 

ii6 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion       117 

It  was  the  fire  in  the  heart  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis  which  wrote  The  Imitation;    it  was 
the  fire  in  the  heart  of  John  Bunyan  which 
wrote  the   Pilgrim's  Progress.     It   has   been 
the  motive  power  that  has  driven  all  Christian 
saints  to  live  and  write.     The  Christian  religion 
is  a  thing  so  simple  that  a  child  can  under- 
stand it,  and  often  does  understand  it,  far 
better  than  the  most  learned  men  and  women. 
"  Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings 
has  God  ordained  praise/'     It  is  a  thing  that 
can  become  the  treasure  of  the  most  ignorant 
pauper  and  of  the  wisest  of  princes.     It  is 
independent  of  clime,  class,  nationahty,  sex, 
or  age.     It  is   the  most   utterly  democratic 
thing  in  the  whole  world.     It  is  high  as  heaven, 
it  is  deeper  than  hell,  as  high  as  man's  highest 
hopes  and  deeper  than  his  deepest  sins,  and 
a  great  deal  wider  than  the  world. 

The  Christian  rehgion  is  simple — and  always 
has  been.  Christian  theology  is  complex  and 
difficult  and  full  of  mysteries — and  always  has 
been.  There  always  have  been  a  large  number 
of  souls  in  the  world  to  whom  Christian 
theology  meant  nothing,  while  the  Christian 
religion  meant  everything.      There  are  still  a 


II 8  Lies  I 

large  number  who  could  no  more  follow  an 
argument  than  they  could  go  to  bed  without 
saying  their  prayers,  and  they  are  the  salt  of 
the  earth.  You  can  count  among  their  number 
some  of  the  choicest  souls  in  the  world — 
brave  men  and  tender  women.  Many  of  our 
mothers,  more  of  our  grandmothers,  whom 
we  rightly  judge  to  be  the  source  of  much 
that  is  best  and  finest  in  us,  belonged  to  that 
number.  Many  soldiers — officers  and  men — 
in  whom  one  has  seen  at  the  front  ''  the  glory 
as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of 
grace  and  truth,''  belong  to  that  number. 
In  their  religion  there  were  no  problems,  only 
a  deep  and  abiding  trust  in  Christ  as  God : 
God  for  the  present  and  God  for  the  future, 
in  whose  hands  all  difficulties  could  be  safely 
left  until  He  saw  fit  to  clear  the  clouds  away. 
These  people  are  God's  own  people,  whom 
to  know  is  to  love.  But  they  are,  if  they 
belong  to  this  generation,  almost  always  queer 
people.  They  are  peculiar,  possessed  of 
peculiar  powers  and  pecuhar  faculties  and  a 
great  gift.  They  have  existed  in  all  ages, 
and  probably  will  continue  to  exist  through 
all  time. 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion        119 

But  it  is  inevitable  that  the  number  of 
people  with  this  peculiar  faculty  of  serene 
and  untroubled  power  to  penetrate  the  dark- 
ness, and  find  God,  should  grow  less  and  less, 
in  proportion  to  the  whole,  as  the  process 
of  universal  education  advances.  We  have 
in  these  last  years,  for  good  or  ill,  embarked 
upon  the  colossal  task  of  teaching  the  world 
to  think,  which  means  that  for  more  and 
more  of  the  human  race,  problems  and 
perplexities  must  creep  in  to  mar  the  serenity 
of  a  childlike  faith.  And  that  is  why  in 
these  days  Christian  theology  is  bound  to 
play  a  larger  and  larger  part  in  bringing  men 
to  God  or  keeping  them  from  Him. 

The  Christian  rehgion  is  the  love  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Christian  theology  is  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  universe  and  of  human  life  in 
terms  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  what  Christian 
theology  always  has  been,  the  effort  of  thinking 
men  to  express  the  stars  and  the  stones,  the 
winds  and  the  waves,  the  laughter  and  the 
tears,  the  pain  and  the  peace  of  the  world  in 
terms  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  is  the  real  task 
of  the  Christian  theologian,  and  it  is  a  tre- 
mendous one  and  enormously  complicated.     It 


120  Lies  I 

is  a  task  which  men  have  been  always  doing 
and  have  never  done. 

We  must  not  on  our  peril  get  confused  in 
our  minds  between  theology  and  religion. 
There  is  the  faith  once  and  for  all  delivered 
to  the  saints,  which  never  changes  ;  but  there 
is  no  such  thing,  and  there  can  be  no  such 
thing,  as  a  theology  once  and  for  all  delivered 
to  the  saints,  which  never  changes,  unless  God 
were  to  cease  from  educating  men,  and  the 
light  which  lighteth  every  man  were  to  cease 
from  coming  into  the  world.  Theology  can 
no  more  stand  still  than  any  other  branch  of 
thought.  It  has  always  been  changing,  and 
within  the  last  half-century  has  changed  so 
rapidly  that  the  minds  of  many  thinking 
Christians  are  troubled  and  confused.  But 
if  you  will  cling  fast  to  this,  that  the  religion 
is  always  simple  and  always  the  same — 
which  is  the  love  of  Jesus — you  can  face  the 
task  of  grasping  a  complex  and  ever-changing 
theology  without  fear.  Theology  does  not 
mterest  me,  and  it  does  not  really  interest 
anybody,  unless  it  be  as  a  hobby,  except  so 
far  as  it  helps  or  hinders  religion.  Theological 
questions  do  not  really  matter  until  they 
become  religious  questions. 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion       121 

But  the  number  of  people  who  must  be 
more  or  less  theological  if  they  are  going  to  be 
religious,  and  to  whom  some  sort  of  theology 
is  an  absolute  necessity,  is  growing  rapidly  ; 
so  rapidly  that  we  must  now  face  the  fact 
that  a  muddled  and  confused  theology — in 
which  the  falsehoods  of  the  past  and  the 
half-truths  of  the  present  unite  to  obscure 
the  real  truth  as  it  is  being  revealed  to  us — 
a  popular  theology  which  is  taught  in  schools, 
preached  from  pulpits,  talked  in  the  street, 
and  which  forms  the  background  of  people's 
minds — is  keeping  thousands  of  men  from  the 
rehgion  of  Jesus  Christ.  To  say  that  Gk)d  is 
keeping  men  from  Christ  would  be  nearer  the 
truth  than  many  paradoxes  are. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  we  clergy  are 
enormously  responsible  for  this.  We  may 
have  preached  the  truth  but  we  have  not 
preached  the  whole  truth,  and  our  mental 
reservations  have  often  made  the  truth  we 
preached  a  lie  to  those  who  listened.  We 
have  been  afraid  of  upsetting  people's  con- 
victions, and  many  a  golden-hearted  parson 
has  shrunk  from  saying  what  he  really 
thought  of  Christ  out  of  respect  for  dear  old 


122  Lies  I 

Mrs.  Brown  or  Mr.  Smith,  both  of  whom 
clung  with  equal  tenacity  to  the  religion  and 
the  theology  that  they  learnt  at  their  mother's 
knee,  their  mother  having  been  born  and 
partially  educated  before  there  was  such  a 
person  known  as  Charles  Darwin,  and  when 
Bishop  Usher  was  the  highest  authority  on 
the  antiquity  of  the  human  race.  We  have 
tried  to  brazen  the  matter  out  with  the 
scientific  revolution  of  thought,  and  assured 
people  that  it  made  no  difference  to  our  out- 
look upon  the  world,  and  did  not  necessitate 
any  re-interpretation  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  caused  some- 
thing like  a  real  revolution  in  theology  to 
which  we  have  been  trying  hard,  and  expend- 
ing extraordinary  ingenuity  in  trying,  to 
blind  our  people's  eyes.  Our  religion  has 
not  been  strong  enough  to  face  the  theolo- 
gical education  which  the  providence  of  God 
has  given  us,  and  we  have  continually  dressed 
up  old  lies  in  modern  clothes  in  order  that 
their  ugliness  might  not  shock  the  children 
of  our  generation.  The  real  rulers  of  our 
theological  seminaries  have  been  Mrs.  Brown 
and  Mr.  Smith.     This  would  be  all  very  well 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion        123 

if  we  were  not  really  sacrificing  hundreds  of 
young  souls  on  the  altar  of  love  for  these 
two  old  ones.  Education,  poor  and  limited 
as  it  is,  has  now  brought  us  to  the  time  when 
we  must  speak  the  truth  and  the  whole 
truth,  and  risk  Mrs.  Brown  and  Mr.  Smith. 
We  have  got  to  take  up  the  task  of  re-inter- 
preting the  world  as  we  now  see  it,  in  the 
full  blaze  of  our  modern  light,  in  terms  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

We  cannot,  I  am  afraid,  accomplish  that 
task  of  reconstruction  without  doing  a  great 
deal  of  destruction  iirst.  We  must  pull  down 
a  good  many  time-honoured  but  tottering 
ruins  before  we  can  build  a  new  temple 
worthy  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  The  task  of 
destruction  is  not,  and  never  ought  to  be, 
a  happy  one.  It  is  never  pleasant  tearing 
clinging  ivy  from  old  walls  and  breaking 
down  the  homes  where  many  noble  people 
have  lived  and  died  content,  because  time 
has  rendered  them  not  fit  for  habitation. 
The  man  who  delights  in  destruction,  who 
loves  tearing  down  for  the  sake  of  tearing 
down,  who  delights  in  shocking,  hurting,  and 
paining  people,  is  a  bad  man  in  whom  Christ 
5* 


124  -^^^^ ' 

does  not  dwell.  But  the  man  who  will  not 
tear  down  what  truth  itself  condemns  is  a 
coward  and  a  traitor  to  the  God  he  serves. 

For  me  and  for  a  good  many  others  this 
work  of  destruction  was  finally  accomplished 
during  the  past  four  years  in  a  brutal,  cruel, 
and  merciless  fashion.  To  a  sensitive  spirit 
these  years  of  War  have  been  a  perpetual 
torture  chamber  in  which  he  has  often  had 
to  have  his  half-beliefs,  which  were  like 
parts  of  his  body,  torn  away  from  him  with- 
out even  being  allowed  at  the  time  to  utter 
a  cry  of  pain. 

The  War  has  not  led  to  any  great  religious 
revival.  I  am  not  surprised  at  that.  I 
cannot  see  anything  in  War  to  produce  a 
religious  revival.  I  believe  it  to  be  an  utter 
and  dangerous  falsehood  to  believe  that  War 
of  itself  uplifts,  purges,  or  sanctifies  men's 
souls.  That  is  a  lie  which  only  Treitschke 
or  the  devil  could  believe.  It  is  the  heart 
of  that  mock-heroic  sentimentalism  upon 
which  mihtarism  is  morally,  or  rather  im- 
morally, founded.  People  stay  at  home  by 
the  fire,  or  sit  in  studies  and  write  books,  and 
imagine    War    to    mean    dashing    over    the 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      125 

parapet  in  defence  of  liberty  and  right,  and 
giving  one's  life  in  one  supreme  act  of  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  great  cause.  War  can  be 
made  into  that  by  very  exceptional  souls, 
but  in  itself  it  bears  no  resemblance  to  it 
whatever.  You  don't  go  out  to  give  your 
life ;  you  go  out  to  take  the  other  fellow's. 
You  don't  go  out  to  save,  you  go  out  to  kill  ; 
and  if  you  don't,  you  are  no  good  as  a  soldier. 
If  non-combatants  hide  behind  the  senti- 
mental conception  of  War  they  hide  behind 
a  lie,  and  a  peculiarly  cruel  lie,  and  I  think 
thousands  of  us  have  been  doing  just  that. 

Once  and  for  all  let  me  state  here  my 
conviction  that  War  is  pure  undiluted,  filthy 
sin.  I  don't  believe  that  it  has  ever  redeemed 
a  single  soul — or  ever  will.  Exceptional  souls 
have  found  their  glory  in  it  and  have  let 
it  shine  before  men  ;  but  the  war  only  brought 
it  to  light ;  it  did  not  make  it.  The  only 
power  that  war  possesses  is  the  only  power 
that  any  evil  thing  possesses,  which  is  the 
power  to  destroy  itself.  If  this  world-wide 
War  has  done  us  any  good  it  is  because  in 
its  flames  a  certain  number  of  old  and  soul- 
killing  lies  have  perished  self- destroyed.     In 


126  Lies ! 

the  blood,  the  mud,  and  the  stench  of  the 
battlefield  they  worked  themselves  out  to 
their  final  absurdity,  while  the  guns  roared 
laughter  from  behind.  Often  and  often  the 
g-inch  guns  have  seemed  to  me  to  yell  out 
above  the  rattle  of  a  barrage,  ''  You  fools, 
you  fools  !  *'  From  the  bottom  of  my  heart 
I  believe  that  this  work  of  destruction,  how- 
ever painful  it  may  be,  must  be  accom- 
plished to  the  bitter  end,  to  lead  the  children 
of  our  generation  to  the  worship  of  the  true 
God. 

"  What  is  God  hke  ?  ''—what  is  He  Hke  ? 
What  do  you  mean  when  you  say  He  is 
Almighty  ?  What  does  the  first  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  mean  when  it  says  that 
*'  There  is  one  God  without  body,  parts  or 
passions,  of  infinite  wisdom  and  power "  ? 
What  do  all  those  wonderful  pictures  in  the 
Revelation  mean — of  God  sitting  on  a  throne 
with  Christ  at  His  right  hand,  while  millions 
of  angels  throng  around  Him  singing  gorgeous 
songs,  and  bending  low  in  humble  worship, 
singing  praises  of  the  triumph  and  the 
victory  of  God — while  a  German  soldier 
spears  a  Belgian  baby,  rapes  its  mother,  and 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      127 

keeps  her  alive  to  see  the  father  shot  ?  In 
God's  name,  what  is  the  Almighty  God  like  ? 

That  is  the  question  which  has  been 
torturing  the  minds  of  millions  during  this 
war ;  making  some  blaspheme  and  curse 
the  very  name  of  God ;  making  others  turn 
from  the  very  thought  of  Him  in  bitterness 
and  despair ;  making  others  still  dully  and 
dimly  indifferent  to  religion  and  all  it  means  ; 
and  shutting  all  ahke  into  a  darkness  which 
the  love  of  God  has  proved  powerless  to 
penetrate.  To  answer  them  merely  as  Job's 
comforters  answered  the  splendid  impatience 
of  patient  Job  with  the  cry  of  agnosticism  : 
"  It  is  higher  than  heaven  ;  what  canst  thou 
do  ?  It  is  deeper  than  hell ;  what  canst 
thou  know  ?  ''  is  to  produce  the  same  effect 
upon  them  as  the  comforters  produced  on 
Job,  namely,  to  make  them  irritated,  sad, 
and  miserable,  and  to  put  God  farther  away 
and  not  draw  Him  nearer. 

If  a  man  had  come  to  me  on  the  battle- 
field and  told  me  that  God  knew  best,  and 
that  I  must  leave  it  all  to  Him,  he  would 
have  made  me  blaspheme ;  and  the  man 
who  comes  to  me  to-day  with  the  same  pious 


128  Lies ! 

platitude  upon  his  lips  makes  me  want  to 
blaspheme  n^ore  bitterly  still.  Because, 
although  the  horror  of  the  battlefield  has 
faded  from  my  mind,  thought  and  meditation 
have  produced  in  my  soul  a  dead  and  settled 
loathing  of  it  as  an  evil,  and  not  merely  a 
very  painful  thing.  Thought  and  meditation 
have  convinced  me  that  War  is  not  only 
torture  but  that  it  is  filthy.  To  tell  me  that 
War  is  evil,  and  that  the  problem  of  evil  is 
insoluble,  is,  indeed,  finally  the  truth  ;  but 
it  is  not  enough.  I  will  not  be  able  to  under- 
stand altogether  ;  I  know  I  cannot ;  I  know, 
however  much  I  learn  and  however  much  I 
think,  there  will  be  mysteries  still.  But  I 
must  know  how  God  looks  at  it ;  I  must 
determine  what  God's  attitude  towards  it  is, 
or  else  down  comes  the  darkness  and  Christ 
is  not  merely  crucified.  He  is  dead. 


My  brethren,  the  ways  of  God 
No  man  can  understand, 

We  can  but  wait  in  awe  and  watch 
The  wonders  of  His  hand. 

He  dwells  in  Majesty  sublime 
Beyond  the  starry  height, 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      129 

His  Wisdom  is  ineffable. 

His  Love  is  Infinite. 
Before  Him  all  created  things 

Do  bow  them  and  obey. 
The  million  stars  that  night  by  night 

Wheel  down  the  milky  way. 
The  shrieking  storm  obeys  His  Will, 

The  wild  waves  hear  His  call. 
The  mountain  and  the  midge's  wing, 

God  made  and  governs  all. 
Tis  not  for  us  to  question  Him, 

To  ask  or  reason  why, 
Tis  ours  to  love  and  worship  Him 

And  serve  Him  till  we  die. 
O  weeping  Mother  torn  with  grief. 

Poor  stricken  heart  that  cries. 
And  rocks  a  cradle  empty  now, 

Tis  by  God's  will  he  dies. 
His  strong  young  body  blown  to  bits. 

His  raw  flesh  quivermg  still. 
His  comrades'  groans  of  agony. 

These  are  God's  Holy  Will. 
He  measures  out  our  Peace  and  War 

As  seemeth  to  Him  best. 
His  judgments  are  unknowable. 

Remember  that — and  rest. 
For  what  are  we  poor  worms  of  earth. 

Whose  life  is  for  a  day. 
Our  finite  minds  that  Satan  blinds. 

My  brethren,  what  are  they  ? 


130  Lies ! 


We  are  but  little  children  weak 

Who  cling  to  God's  right  hand. 
Just  think  how  wonderful  He  is, 

And  bow  to  His  command. 
He  has  some  hidden  purpose  sure 

For  all  this  blood  and  tears, 
It  is  His  WiU— be  still— be  still. 

He  is  the  Lord  of  years. 
He  bids  us  love  our  enemies 

And  live  in  Christian  Peace, 
'Tis  only  He  can  order  Wars 

And  woes  that  never  cease. 
Vengeance  is  Mine,  I  wiU  repay. 

Beware  !  Thou  shalt  not  kill. 
Behold  the  bloody  fields  of  France, 

They  are  God's  Holy  Will. 
That  is  what  makes  Him  wonderful 

To  our  poor  human  sight ; 
He  only  can  work  miracles 

And  turn  Wrong  into  Right. 
So  bow  you  down  and  worship  Him, 

Kneel  humbly  and  adore 
This  Infinitely  Loving  God 

Who  is  the  Lord  of  War. 
Lift  up  your  hands  in  ceaseless  prayer 

That  He  will  spare  your  Uves, 
And  let  His  loving  judgments  fall 

On  other  people's  wives. 
He  is  a  God  who  answers  prayer 

And  alters  His  decrees 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      131 


If  only  we  persistently 

Beseech  Him  on  our  knees. 
If  only  we  would  pray  enough. 

My  brethren,  for  our  sons, 
Then  He  would  save  their  lives  for  us. 

And  spike  the  German  guns. 
Our  shrieks  of  pain  go  up  in  vain. 

The  wide  world's  miseries 
Must  still  persist  until  we  learn 

To  pray  upon  our  knees. 
Upon  our  knees,  my  friends,  I  said. 

And  mark  well  what  I  say, 
God  wants  to  see  us  on  our  knees. 

The  proper  place  to  pray. 
Nought  is  impossible  to  God 

In  answer  to  such  prayers. 
If  only  we  are  meek  enough. 

He  is  a  God  who  spares. 
Whenever  people  seek  to  know 

And  ask  the  reason  why 
Their  sons  are  swallowed  up  by  wars 

And  called  to  fight  and  die, 
There  is  one  thing  I  ask,  dear  friends, 

One  thing  I  always  say, 
I  ask  them  straight,  I'm  not  afraid, 

I  ask  them,  "  Did  you  pray  ? 
Did  you  pray  humbly  on  your  knees 

That  it  might  be  God's  WiU 
To  spare  his  life  and  bring  him  back. 

To  spare,  and  not  to  kill  ?  " 


132  Lies ! 

Then  if  they  still  can  answer  yes. 

And  think  to  baffle  me, 
I  simply  answer,  "  Bow  your  head. 

His  death  was  God's  decree." 
And  who  are  we  to  question  it. 

Who  crawl  upon  the  earth 
As  insects  in  His  Holy  sight, 

Vile  things  of  little  worth  ? 
Remember,  rather,  all  your  sins. 

And  bow  to  God's  decrees. 
Seek  not  to  know  the  plans  of  God, 

But  pray  upon  your  knees. 
That  you  may  love  with  all  your  heart, 

With  all  your  soul  and  mind. 
This  perfect  God  you  cannot  know. 

Whose  face  you  cannot  find. 
You  have  no  notion  what  He's  like. 

You  cannot  know  His  Will, 
He's  wrapped  in  darkest  mystery. 

But  you  must  love  Him  still. 
And  love  Him  all  the  more  because 

He  is  the  unknown  God 
Who  leads  you  bhndf old  down  the  path 

That  martyred  Saints  have  trod. 
That  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Christ. 

Submit  whate'er  betides. 
You  cannot  make  the  wrong  world  right, 

Tis  God  alone  decides. 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      133 

0  by  Thy  Cross  and  Passion,  Lord, 

By  broken  hearts  that  pant 
For  comfort  and  for  Love  of  Thee, 

Deliver  us  from  cant. 

There  is  no  power  nor  virtue  in  this 
travesty  of  faith,  which  makes  it  mean  the 
taking  of  all  things  on  trust,  the  folding  of 
the  hands  and  the  bowing  of  the  head,  the 
spiritless  submission  to  the  lie  that  whatever 
is  is  right.  Faith  does  not  mean  that  we 
cease  from  asking  questions  ;  it  means  that 
we  ask  and  keep  on  asking  until  the  answer 
comes ;  that  we  seek  and  keep  on  seeking 
until  the  truth  is  found ;  that  we  knock 
and  keep  on  knocking  until  the  door  is 
opened  and  we  enter  into  the  palace  of 
God's  truth. 

It  becomes  more  and  more  important  as 
years  pass  by  and  men's  minds  grow  that 
we  should  prove  all  things,  while  holding 
fast  to  that  which  is  true.  Christ  calls  us 
to  that  courage  which  bids  us  give  up  the 
snug  little  homes  which  sloth  and  prejudice 
have  built  for  our  minds,  our  pet  infalli- 
bilities, in  which  we  could  rest  and  cease  to 
think  wrapt  in  perfect  peace ;    He  calls  us 


134  ^^^^  ^ 

to  give  them  up  as  He  called  us  to  give  up 
the  peace  and  quiet  of  our  own  fireside  for 
the  mud  and  misery  of  France  and  Flanders, 
for  the  sake  of  truth  and  of  our  children  yet 
unborn.  We  are  afraid — of  course  we  are 
afraid.  "  If  that  is  not  true,"  we  say, 
''  where  am  I  ?  How  can  I  be  sure  of  any- 
thing ?  If  the  Bible  is  not  literally  true, 
word  for  word,  if  the  picture  of  God  which 
my  forefathers  had  is  a  false  picture,  where 
am  I  ?  What  is  there  settled  ?  Where  can 
I  live  ?  There  is  nothing  before  me  but  the 
open  sea  where  I  must  journey  helpless  and 
exposed  to  every  wind  that  blows." 

And  that  is  true  !  The  world  is  out  on 
the  open  sea  exposed  to  every  wind.  And  I 
am  out  on  the  open  sea  with  it,  but  I  do  not 
care  because  there  is  One  walks  beside  me 
and  before  me  and  behind  me,  and  God,  who 
caused  the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness, 
has  shined  into  my  heart  to  give  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  called  upon, 
the  Church  is  called  upon,  to  go  out  on  to 
the  open  sea  with  Christ,  leaving  behind  the 
snug  homes  of  patent  infallibilities  which  the 


Lies,  and  Theology  and  Religion      135 

guns  have  battered  into  dust,  and  follow  Him 
until  we  find  the  truth. 

We  are  not  in  complete  darkness.  We  are 
not  without  a  Guide.  Theology  changes, 
but  rehgion  remains.  To  fold  your  hands 
and  say,  *'  God  knows  best,"  to  take  refuge 
in  unreal  platitudes,  is  to  cower  away  from 
the  light  that  God,  through  the  prayers  of 
the  saints,  through  the  courage  of  the 
scientists,  through  the  cunning  of  inventors, 
and  through  the  tireless  patience  of  the 
thinkers,  has  been  giving  down  the  ages. 
The  task  of  the  Church  and  of  her  children, 
which  is  peculiarly  her  task  and  peculiarly 
theirs,  is  to  gather  up  from  every  corner  of 
the  world  all  the  light  that  can  be  found,  and 
set  it  blazing  on  this  great  problem  of  evil, 
in  order  to  find  the  best  partial  solution  for 
the  children  of  our  day,  and  the  one  which 
will  provide  the  surest  foundation  for  the 
complete  solution  which  the  passage  of  the 
ages,  under  God,  will  bring  to  light.  We 
must  seek  for  light  in  every  corner  of  God's 
universe,  never  forgetting  it  is  God's  universe, 
and  that  in  it  we  can  find  revelation  of 
Himself.     We  must  go  down  to  life's  dirtiest 


136  Lies  I 

and  dingiest  depths,  and  up  to  its  fairest 
and  most  fearful  heights ;  we  must  face  all 
the  facts — the  facts  that  make  us  shudder 
and  the  facts  that  make  us  laugh,  the  beauty 
that  makes  us  gasp  with  wonder  and  the 
ugliness  that  makes  us  shrink  in  horror,  the 
good  that  makes  us  want  to  worship  and  the 
evil  that  makes  us  bow  our  heads  in  shame ; 
we  must  look  at  them  all,  face  them  all, 
asking  always,  '*  What  is  God  like " — the 
God  who  is  Creator  and  Ruler  of  a  universe 
like  this  ?  We  must  not  do  what  we  have 
done,  invent  a  God  and  then  make  life  to 
fit  Him,  blinding  our  eyes  to  what  does  not 
suit  our  purpose ;  creating  an  absolute  by 
the  negative  process  of  subtracting  all  human 
limitations  from  the  human  being,  and  choos- 
ing what  we  want  to  consider  limitations, 
and  what  we  do  not.  An  imaginary  God 
may  be  very  beautiful,  but  He  will  not  stand 
the  tears  and  terror,  and  the  fires  that  are 
not  quenched.     We  must  have  Truth. 


LIES  AND  NATURE 

"  I  BELIEVE  in  God  the  Father  Almighty, 
Maker  of  heaven  and  earth/'  That  is  the 
first  clause  of  our  shortest  creed  which  con- 
tains the  kernel  of  our  faith.  "  I  believe/' 
Do  you  beUeve  ?  Do  you  really  know  what 
it  means  ?  Can  you  find  God  in  nature  ? 
At  first  it  seems  the  easiest  thing  in  the 
world.  Nature  seems  to  speak  of  God.  Go, 
stand  out  on  a  summer  night  and  look  up- 
wards to  the  sky  where  the  million  stars  go 
sailing  through  that  great  wide  sea  of  blue 
like  silent  ships  that  pass  in  the  night,  or 
like  a  mighty  army  with  flickering  torches 
in  their  hands  marching  ever  onwards  from 
dawn  to  darkness  and  from  darkness  on  to 
dawn.  Go,  walk  in  the  woods  on  a  day  in 
April  and  watch  the  beauty  of  nature  repeat- 
ing the  eternal  resurrection,  and  rising  from 
the  grave  of  winter  to  the  splendour  of  the 
spring.  Go,  stand  and  watch  the  daylight 
die,  and  all  the  west  grow  wonderful  with  a 

137 


138  Lies  I 

thousand  colours  past  the  power  of  human 
artists  to  express.  Look  at  a  mountain 
towering  up  to  kiss  the  sky,  pluck  the  tiniest 
flower  that  grows  upon  its  side,  and  if  you 
are  a  healthy  man  or  a  healthy  woman  there 
will  be  something  that  will  call  you — call  you 
to  the  worship  of  the  Maker  and  Creator  of 
it  all,  and  to  the  love  of  the  Great  Artist  in 
whose  mind  the  ever-changing  picture  that 
the  world  presents  was  born. 

There  is  something  in  nature  which  calls 
with  a  call  that  cannot  be  ignored  to  the 
soul  of  the  ordinary  son  of  man.  Old  Mother 
Earth  has  a  power  with  us,  and  something 
makes  us  feel  that  she  is  bone  of  our  bone 
and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  one  with  us  in  the  unity 
of  Him  who  made  us  both. 

The  oldest  religion  in  the  world  is  the 
worship  of  nature.  All  religion  is  based 
upon  it,  and  no  religion  can  be  a  true  or  an 
adequate  religion  which  leaves  it  out.  It  all 
seems  simple  at  first ;  it  seems  as  if  the 
strongest  proof  of  the  goodness  and  the  love 
of  God  was  the  wonderful  world  in  which 
we  Hve.  And  for  years  men  pointed  to  the 
world  with  unwavering  conviction  as  positive 


Lies  and  Nature  139 

proof  of  the  Wisdom,   the  Power,   and  the 
Love  of  God. 

But  when  we  come  to  face  all  the  facts 
it  is  not  so  simple  as  it  looks.  Nature  is 
amazingly  beautiful,  but  she  is  amazingly 
cruel  too.  We  have  to  look  not  only  at  the 
flaming  sunset  and  the  flowery  fields,  not 
only  at  the  silvery  stars  and  the  silent  sea 
beneath  an  August  moon  ;  we  have  to  look 
at  the  avalanche  that  will  thunder  down, 
and  in  its  fall  destroy  a  hundred  homesteads 
and  a  thousand  hopes ;  we  have  to  think 
of  the  flood,  hke  the  floods  of  the  Yellow 
River  in  China,  that  will  obliterate  a  town- 
ship in  a  day ;  we  have  to  think  of  earth- 
quakes, like  the  earthquake  near  San  Fran- 
cisco killing  its  thousands  and  rendering 
thousands  more  homeless ;  we  have  to  think 
of  the  famine,  when  the  pitiless  sun  beats 
down  from  a  cloudless  sky  and  the  windows 
of  heaven  are  shut,  and  men  starve  by 
thousands,  and  beasts  die  of  thirst ;  we 
have  to  think  of  the  pestilences  and  plagues 
that  will  rage  over  a  land,  slaying  more  than 
guns  or  swords  could  ever  slay.  We  have 
to  think  of  the  whole  meaning  of  disease, 


140  Lies  I 

which  we  find  everywhere  in  nature  among 
both  animals  and  men,  and  which  will  put 
to  death  a  little  child,  not  swiftly  and  merci- 
fully, but  by  slow  lingering  torture.  I  have 
often  gone  into  a  sick  child's  room  and  looked 
at  its  pinched  and  pain-racked  face,  and  from 
that  to  the  glory  of  golden  daffodils  in  a 
vase  by  the  side  of  its  bed,  and  in  my  heart 
have  asked  the  question :  "  Great  God  of 
nature,  of  tenderness  and  terror,  of  beauty 
and  ugliness,  of  life  and  death,  what  art 
Thou  like  ?  "  Beside  the  dove  that  coos  in 
the  dovecote  on  a  summer  day  we  have  to 
put  the  man-eating  tiger,  tearing  its  victim 
limb  from  limb  ;  beside  the  nightingale  sing- 
ing its  love-song  to  the  stars  we  have  to  put 
the  snake  that  strikes  to  kill.  It  is  not  so 
simple  after  all.  Look  all  the  facts  in  the  face, 
and  your  soul  cries  out  in  doubt :  ''  What  is 
God  like  ?  " 

Moreover,  in  these  last  years  men  have 
studied  nature  more  closely  still,  and  the 
knowledge  they  have  won  for  us,  at  first 
sight,  seems  to  make  the  cloud  of  doubt  so 
thick  that  no  light  could  pierce  it.  For 
centuries  our  fathers  were  content  with  the 


Lies  and  Nature  141 

wonderful  picture  of  creation  in  the  great 
poem  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  To 
them  it  was  poetry  and  accurate  science,  too. 
There  we  see  the  great  God  waving  as  it 
were  a  magic  wand,  moving  as  a  wind  on 
the  face  of  the  waters,  and  in  the  six  days 
of  evening  and  morning  making  a  world 
complete  with  all  its  wonders.  With  this 
picture  of  magic  creation  by  an  omnipotent 
force  our  fathers  were  content.  But  the 
scientific  research  of  the  nineteenth  century 
destroyed  it,  and  put  a  much  more  wonder- 
ful, but  much  more  complicated  and  difficult 
picture  in  its  place.  Instead  of  the  6,000 
years  which  our  fathers  believed  to  be  the 
age  of  the  human  race,  the  scientists  opened 
out  before  us  a  vista  of  unending  years, 
stretching  back  and  back  into  darkness  and 
displaying  to  us  a  picture  of  a  world  slowly, 
painfully,  and  most  strangely  moving  under 
the  impulse  of  some  mysterious  power,  to- 
wards some  mysterious  end.  Instead  of  the 
well-contented  Creator  looking  down  from 
his  Sabbath  rest  upon  all  that  He  had  made 
and  declaring  it  to  be  very  good,  instead  of 
the    picture    of    a    complete,    rounded,    and 


142  Lies ! 

finished  nature,  they  showed  us  a  world  in 
perpetual  motion.  Moreover,  they  showed 
us  that  this  strangely  moving  thing  moved 
in  accordance  with  certain  unbroken  and 
unbreakable  laws,  the  laws  of  what  they 
called  '*  natural  evolution/' 

The  greatest  of  these  was  the  law  of  the 
**  survival  of  the  fittest "  in  the  ''  great 
struggle  for  existence/'  They  showed  us 
how  some  species  of  plants  survived  and 
succeeded  while  others  failed  and  died  and 
became  extinct ;  how  whole  races  of  animals 
failed  in  the  battle  of  Hfe  and  died  out,  while 
other  races  proceeded  and  progressed.  This 
made  the  picture  still  more  difficult  to  those 
who  sought  to  find  in  it  a  God  of  Love,  a 
spirit  like  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
this  difficulty  was  increased  by  the  terms 
in  which  this  scientific  knowledge  was  ex- 
pressed. Unconsciously  men  read  into  the 
life  of  animals  and  plants  human  passions, 
human  powers,  and  human  pains.  The 
phrase  *'  The  struggle  for  existence ''  called 
up  before  men's  eyes  the  vision  of  a  battle 
of  animals  locked  in  deadly  strife  fighting 
to  the  death.     '*  The  survival  of  the  fittest " 


Lies  and  Nature  143 

made  them  see  the  picture  of  a  victor 
licking  bloody  chops  and  looking  down  upon 
his  vanquished  foe.  More  and  more  nature 
grew  in  the  light  of  science  to  look  Hke  a 
battlefield.  This  is  only  partly  true.  It  is 
true  that  beast  preys  on  beast,  fish  on  fish, 
and  bird  on  bird ;  but  it  is  not  true  that 
the  life  of  animals  is  one  perpetual  war. 
There  is  no  war  in  the  human  sense  in 
nature.  You  do  not  get  battalions  of 
cabbages  fighting  with  battalions  of  cauli- 
flowers to  find  out  which  is  the  fittest  to 
survive.  As  Sir  Ray  Lankester  has  observed, 
"  You  do  not  see  fir  trees  advancing  against 
beech  trees,  bears  against  wolves,  vultures 
against  eagles,  in  big  well-trained  battalions 
and  brigades."  The  races  of  animals  that 
have  become  extinct  did  not  die  on  a  battle- 
field, but  peacefully  in  their  own  beds. 
They  were  not  suited  to  their  surroundings, 
and  so  did  not  breed,  and  thus  gradually 
died  off.  War,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  con- 
trary to  the  whole  principle  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  It  is  the  best  method  of 
securing  the  survival  of  the  unfittest  people, 
for   we   send   our   fittest   out    to   fight   and 


144  ^i^^  • 

leave  our  weaklings  at  home  to  breed, 
which  secures  the  survival  of  the  unfit  in 
the  race.  This  was  a  fact  which  the  great 
scientist,  Charles  Darwin,  himself  perceived 
and  stated. 

Moreover,  we  must  beware  how  we  read 
into  the  struggles  of  animals,  bloody  as  they 
appear  to  be,  the  passion  and  pain  of  human 
beings.  A  closer  observation  of  the  picture 
which  science  reveals  to  us  makes  it  much 
less  cruel,  and  much  less  like  a  battlefield, 
than  these  crude  and  barbarous  misinter- 
pretations of  scientific  truth  would  lead  us 
to  suppose.  There  is  very  little  scientific 
foundation  for  the  teaching  of  the  German 
Haeckel  in  his  Riddle  of  the  Universe,  which 
sold  by  thousands  and  was  translated  into 
five  European  languages,  in  which  he  talks 
"of  the  cruel  and  pitiless  struggle  for  exist- 
ence which  rages  through  living  nature  and 
must  for  ever  rage ''  as  being  the  central 
fact  that  scientific  learning  had  disclosed. 
The  struggle  is  there,  but  it  is  sentimental 
and  not  scientific,  to  call  it  ''  pitiless  "  and 
*'  cruel "  in  the  human  sense.  There  is 
undoubtedly    a     great    problem    of    animal 


Lies  and  Nature  145 

suffering,  but  we  must  beware  of  bestowing 
upon  animals  the  power  of  enduring  human 
agony  and  human  grief. 

But  although  the  new  picture  of  nature 
is  not  so  crude  or  brutal  as  we  at  first  sup- 
posed, it  is  strangely  and  wonderfully  dif- 
ferent from  the  picture  in  which  our  fathers 
unquestionably  beheved.  Science  has  not 
indeed  done  away  with  the  necessity  of 
believing  in  a  creator.  For  some  time  many 
thinking  people  were  blinded  by  the  new 
light,  and  allowed  to  pass  unchallenged  the 
statement  that  the  world  was  made  by 
"  evolution,''  or  that  it  was  made  by  ''  natural 
law."  These  statements  are  not  so  much 
untrue  as  nonsensical.  To  say  that  the 
world  was  made  by  evolution  is  very  much 
as  if  a  child,  being  asked  how  much  forty 
cows  would  cost  at  £20  :  14  :  8  each,  were 
to  reply,  *'  Oh,  that  is  easy ;  it  is  done  by 
simple  practice,''  and  were  then  to  fold  his 
hands  and  close  his  eyes  and  wait  for  simple 
practice  to  solve  the  sum.  He  would  have 
to  wait  until  Gabriel  blew  the  trump  of 
doom,  for  a  method  cannot  solve  a  sum 
without  a  mind  to  work  it.     The  laws  of 


146  Lies  I 

nature  and  evolution  are  different  names 
for  the  method  by  which  the  world  was 
made,  but  they  do  not  say  a  word  about 
the  power  that  made  it.  Science  has  not 
answered  and  cannot  answer  a  single  final 
question.  It  leaves  us  still  staring  at  the 
world,  and  still  with  the  old  dilemma,  "  Is 
it  an  accident  or  is  it  a  design ;  did  it  just 
happen  to  grow  like  this,  or  is  there  some 
one  behind  it  ?  " 

When  I  am  asked  to  beheve  that  the 
world  as  it  is,  is  the  result  of  an  accident 
or  a  series  of  accidents  happening  over 
thousands  of  years,  I  get  a  severe  attack 
of  mental  indigestion.  I  am  willing  to 
admit  that  Christianity  is  hard  to  beheve, 
but  I  find  materialism  much  harder.  On 
the  other  hand,  when  I  am  asked  to  believe 
that  nature  is  perfect,  the  work  of  an  abso- 
lutely Almighty,  All-wise,  and  All-Loving 
Being,  Who  has  a  place  for  everything  and 
everything  in  its  place ;  when  I  am  asked 
to  see  in  nature  the  high  and  mighty 
Potentate,  the  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of 
Lords,  the  only  Ruler  of  princes,  to  Whom 
all  things  in  Heaven  and  earth  do  bow  and 


Lies  and  Nature  147 

obey,  my  brain  begins  to  reel.  How  can  I 
believe  in  an  absolutely  perfect  nature  when 
a  large  portion  of  the  labour  of  practical 
men  is  expended  on  improving  her,  on 
battling  with  her  cruelties,  and  destroying 
her  power  to  hurt  and  injure  the  sons  of 
men  ?  Why  the  avalanche  ?  Why  the 
volcano  ?  Why  the  earthquake  ?  Why  the 
tiger  and  the  snake  ?  Why  the  madman 
and  the  child  with  the  foul  disease  ?  What 
is  God's  will  about  these  things  ? 

In  the  old  days  when  a  pestilence  swept 
across  the  land  the  priests  would  call  the 
people  to  their  knees  to  beseech  the  Almighty 
Monarch  to  remove  the  plague  that  He  had 
sent.  The  Hebrew  prophets  pictured  God 
as  armed  with  plague,  pestilence,  famine,  and 
flood — weapons  which  He  used  to  drive  men 
to  obedience ;  and  even  now  in  books  of 
devotion  you  will  find  exhortations  to  sub- 
mit to  cancer  and  other  foul  diseases  as  the 
will  of  God.  The  modern  man  of  science 
repudiates  this  idea.  He  is  convinced  that 
he  must  fight  against  the  pestilence  by 
every  means  in  his  power ;  that  he  must 
investigate  its  origin,  probe  into  the  method 


148  Lies ! 

whereby  it  is  spread,  and  kill  it  at  its  birth. 
He  bids  us  go  down  on  our  knees,  not  so 
much  to  say  our  prayers  as  to  examine  the 
drains ;  he  carries  on  his  warfare  with  a 
plague,  not  in  church  but  in  a  laboratory. 
The  engineer  goes  out,  and  by  artificial  irri- 
gation, by  carefully  constructed  dams,  and 
by  increasing  rapidity  of  transport,  abolishes 
the  powers  of  the  famine  to  hurt  and  starve. 
The  raodern  mind  is  perfectly  sure  that  it 
is  right  in  fighting  physical  evil.  The  mind 
of  our  forefathers  regarded  physical  evils  as 
visitations  of  God,  and  as  supreme  exhibitions 
of  His  power.  Which  is  right  ?  From  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  I  believe  that  the  instinct 
of  the  modern  mind  is  right,  and  that  it 
is  our  duty,  and  that  we  are  doing  the  will 
of  God,  when  we  fight  plague,  pestilence, 
famine,  flood,  and  every  form  of  cruelty  in 
Nature.  The  man  who  died  trying  to  find 
a  cure  for  cancer  was  as  true  a  martyr  as 
St.  Stephen.  Greater  love  hath  no  man 
than  this,  that  he  give  his  life  for  his  friends. 
We  have  done  immeasurable  harm  to  the 
cause  of  true  religion  by  trying  to  make  men, 
whose   whole    days    were   spent   in    fighting 


Lies  and  Nature  149 

the  evils  that  beset  us,  beheve  that  these 
very  evils  were  sent  by  the  God  that  they 
were  called  upon  to  worship.  That  is  why 
you  will  find  so  many  splendid  scientists 
and  practical  reformers  outside  the  pale  of 
the  Christian  Church.  I  believe  that  further 
knowledge  will  more  and  more  disclose  to 
us  the  larger  part  that  spiritual  forces  have 
to  play  in  the  great  battle  to  which  God 
calls  us  against  disease,  and  all  the  other 
evils  of  nature.  I  am  sure  that  we  are  only 
beginners  in  the  science  of  Prayer  as  the 
secret  of  health,  and  as  a  power  to  heal 
disease,  and  that  the  material  Scientist  is 
wrong  if  he  looks  only  to  material  Science 
for  heahng,  but  I  am  sure  he  is  right  in 
believing  that  the  will  of  God  is  that  all 
these  evils  should  be  destroyed. 

What  then  is  God  like  ?  I  see  no  evidence 
anywhere  in  nature  of  the  Almighty  Potentate 
Who  guides  and  governs  all  things  with  His 
rod,  and  knows  no  failure  and  no  thwarting 
of  His  Will. 

The  strange  and  awful  process  by  which 
the  worlds  were  made  does  not  look  a  bit 
like  the  work  of  an  absolute  and  unlimited 


150  Lies  I 

power  of  Love  Who  has  but  to  speak  and 
His  Will  is  done.  Nevertheless  there  is 
something  or  some  one  behind  it,  and  I 
feel  sure  that  it  is  some  one  and  not  some- 
thing. I  must  judge  the  process  in  the 
light  of  its  highest  product — that  is  just 
common  sense.  The  meaning  of  every 
movement  must  be  sought  in  the  direction 
in  which  it  moves.  An  upward  process 
must  be  looked  at  from  its  highest  point. 
The  highest  point  of  nature's  upward  process 
is  Man — a  person,  a  being  who  Wills,  and 
Loves,  and  Plans.  I  must  judge  nature  in 
the  light  of  man.  I  cannot  separate  myself 
and  my  fellows  from  the  great  process. 
Life  is  one,  from  the  single  cell  to  the  Saviour 
in  the  flesh.  I  cannot  separate  Swine  from 
Shakespeare  or  Jellyfish  from  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth ;  they  all  are  products  of  the  process. 
So  behind  the  process  there  must  be  a  Spirit 
which  is  like  the  Spirit  of  man. 

So  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice, 

Saying,  ' '  O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here  for  thee  ; 

I  see  My  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  Myself ; 

Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  canst  conceive  of  mine ; 

But  Love  I  gave  thee,  with  Myself  to  love, 

And  thou  must  love  Me  Who  have  died  for  thee." 


Lies  and  Nature  151 


I  must  look  for  the  meaning  of  nature  in 
Man,  and  then  I  must  look  for  the  meaning 
of  man  in  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ— the 
perfect  man — who  is  man's  God  because  He 
is  the  highest  that  has  ever  hved  in  Flesh. 
So,  finally,  I  come  to  look  for  the  meaning 
of  nature  in  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  I 
cannot  help  it.  Soul  and  intellect  together 
drive  me  to  it.  Moreover,  when  I  go  to 
nature,  seeking  not  the  Almighty  Potentate 
but  the  suffering,  Loving,  labouring  Christ, 
I  am  not  disappointed.  I  do  find  evidence 
of  a  spirit  like  to  His— a  Spirit  of  Beauty, 
Order,  and  Benevolence  striving  to  express 
itself  in  nature.  I  see  this  Spirit  crucified 
on  Nature's  Calvary.  I  see  it  thwarted, 
hindered,  baffled  in  its  task,  but  never 
stayed  or  stopped;  always  it  begins  again, 
always  it  persists.  It  suffers  like  Christ,  and 
it  rises  again  Hke  Christ.  It  is  no  mere 
metaphor  but  the  nearest  expression  of 
final  Truth  to  which  I  can  attain  and 
express,  when  I  say  that  I  see  all  nature 
signed  with  the  sign  of  the  Cross  and  bright 
with  the  glory  of  Easter  Day.  I  see  the 
whole   creation    groaning    and    travailing   in 


152  Lies  I 

pain  together  until  now,  and  the  meaning  of 
the  travail — I  can  find  in  Christ. 

I  can  only  understand  nature  by  looking 
back  at  it  through  Christ.  I  can  only 
understand  God's  labour  and  God's  suffering 
in  nature  as  I  look  at  it  through  His  labour 
and  His  suffering  in  Christ.  God  suffered 
in  Christ  on  Calvary  because  His  effort  to 
express  Himself  through  man  was  hindered 
and  thwarted  by  man's  free  will  misused 
(that  is  by  sin),  and  also  by  man's  ignorance 
and  imperfection.  If  we  go  back  from 
man  we  find  that  free  will  has  grown,  as 
everything  that  is  human  has  grown,  from 
roots  which  are  buried  in  nature.  Free  will 
like  everything  is  the  result  of  the  great 
process.  Animals  have  a  will  of  their  own, 
not  so  fully  grown  as  man's  will,  but  still 
there.  Every  horseman  knows  that,  and 
knows  too  that  in  training  that  will  force 
is  only  of  use  up  to  a  certain  point.  You 
must  not  break  the  spirit  of  a  horse  or  a 
dog  any  more  than  you  must  break  the 
spirit  of  a  man.  Go  back  to  plants,  and  they 
too  have  a  kind  of  independence,  a  will  of 
their  own,  which  cannot  be  altogether  killed 


Lies  and  Nature  153 

without  killing  the  plant.  Every  gardener 
knows  that.  Go  back  to  stones,  and  the 
sculptor  knows  that  they  have  a  nature  of 
their  own  which  cannot  be  destroyed  with- 
out destroying  the  stone.  The  nature  of 
the  material  is  a  limitation  to  which  the 
most  skilful  worker  must  submit.  Here  is 
the  only  light  we  have  upon  the  mystery. 
When  God  in  His  Love  willed  to  begin  the 
great  process,  He  had  to  submit  to  limitations 
due  to  the  necessary  nature  of  matter  itself. 
These  limitations  are  not  eternal  or  final. 
God  is  overcoming  them,  nature  is  not 
finished  yet,  it  is  being  finished  through  man. 
Every  effort  that  man  makes  to  overcome 
the  evils  due  to  matter  is  made  by  the  power 
of  the  striving  God  that  works  within  him. 
As  he  learns  to  conquer  space  and  time 
by  mechanical  invention  and  scientific  dis- 
covery, as  he  lays  the  railroad,  sinks  the 
cable,  builds  the  flying-machine,  he  is  per- 
fecting the  Body  of  God,  through  which  His 
Truth  can  at  last  express  itself  in  the  perfect 
Brotherhood  of  man.  That  is  the  meaning 
of  material  progress — ^it  is  the  building  of 
God's  Body. 


154  Lies ! 

Railroads  are  the  hands  of  God  stretching 
out  to  draw  man  nearer  man,  the  great 
ships  are  His  fingers  that  gather  up  the  sea, 
the  cables  are  His  vocal  chords  to  ring  the 
world  round  with  His  Love ;  so  as  men 
toil  God's  Body  grows  to  the  fullness  of  the 
final  Incarnation,  when  God  shall  be  all  in 
all. 

When  through  sloth  or  cowardice  we 
cease  to  strive  with  nature,  cease  to  war 
against  disease,  prevent  epidemics,  control 
floods,  and  fight  famines  we  sin  against 
the  Spirit.  When  through  greed  and  mahce 
we  misuse  our  mastery  of  nature,  and  use 
our  powers  of  brain  and  hand  to  destroy 
and  not  create,  we  crucify  God  afresh.  That 
is  the  Tragedy  of  War.  It  is  not  mere 
destruction,  it  is  perversion,  it  is  treachery 
against  God.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  the  eternal 
Love  that  sends  the  reckless  flying-boy  to 
mount  above  the  clouds.  When  I  saw  in  the 
twilight  of  a  summer  dawn  one  such  gallant 
lad  shot  down  in  a  sheet  of  flame,  I  saw 
again  the  Cross  of  Christ,  not  in  Metaphor 
but  in  reality.  And  I  thanked  God  who 
made  the  boy  immortal,  and  gave  us  Easter 


Lies  and  Nature  155 

Day  so  that  death  meant  only  resurrection 
and  a  flight  more  glorious  still.  God  was 
crucified  in  him,  but  only  to  rise  again  and 
again  in  others  like  him  until  the  great  new 
link  of  flight  'twixt  land  and  land  at  last  is 
made  complete.  So  the  Christ  in  nature 
calls  us  onward  to  more  and  greater  efforts — 
calls  us  not  to  submission  but  to  deathless 
aspiration — calls  us  not  to  rest  but  to  more 
toil.  So  it  is  that  the  song  of  the  great 
machines  that  thunder  as  they  roll  out  this 
world's  wealth  is  one  with  the  song  of 
mating  birds  in  spring,  the  base  and  treble 
blend  together  in  the  passion  song  of  God, 

See !  from  His  head,  His  hands,  His  feet, 
Sorrow  and  Love  flow  mingling  down ; 

Did  e'er  such  love  and  sorrow  meet. 
Or  thorns  compose  so  rich  a  crown  ? 

The  God  of  Nature  is  the  God  of  Calvary — 
the  God  revealed  in  Christ. 


LIES  AND  HISTORY 

We  stand  to-day  on  the  mountain  top  of  a 
hard-won  Peace  and  we  look  back  over  the 
road  of  history  through  clouds  of  battle 
smoke  which  have  hardly  had  time  to  clear 
away,  but  the  terrible  thing  is  that  the 
battle  sraoke  of  earth's  war  has  never  reaUy 
had  time  to  clear  away  all  down  history. 
The  history  of  man  up  to  now  is  the  history 
of  War,  strife,  bloodshed,  and  barbarity 
which  have  accompanied  man  in  his  journey 
down  the  ages.  Whatever  there  may  be  in 
the  future,  there  certainly  never  has  been 
in  the  past  anything  like  '*  Peace  on  earth  " 
or  "  Goodwill  to  men.''  The  history  of 
Europe,  or  of  the  world,  is  full  of  battle- 
cries  and  blood,  and  these  are  real  battles,  a 
real  struggle,  not  the  comparatively  peaceful 
struggle  which  we  find  in  nature  and  in 
animal  life.  Human  warfare  has  always 
meant  lust  and  cruelty,  broken  homes  and 
broken  hearts.     We  in  our  little  Island  home, 

156 


Lies  and  History  157 

with  the  barrier  of  silver  sea,  had,  before  the 
Great  War,  come  to  think  of  the  nineteenth 
century  as  a  time  of  peace ;  we  beHeved 
that  War  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  a  great 
many  of  us ;  we  beHeved  that  it  would  not 
pay  in  the  modern  world,  and  we  pinned 
our  faith  to  the  peace  of  Dives  and  were 
convinced  that  what  God  Himself  could 
not  give  us  stockbrokers  and  gamblers  on 
the  Exchanges  of  the  world  would  easily 
achieve.  It  was  a  pathetic  business ;  we 
were  like  children  playing  on  the  edge  of 
a  volcano  and  thinking  it  was  the  York- 
shire Wolds.  In  August  1914  our  fool's 
paradise  was  blown  into  fragments  and 
became  a  kind  of  blistering  heU — ^it  was  all  a 
fallacy. 

Of  all  the  many  barbarous  and  bloody 
centuries  through  which  man  has  made  his 
way,  the  nineteenth  was  perhaps  the  most 
bloody  and  the  most  barbarous.  Just  think 
of  these  dates — from  1789  to  1815,  the 
Napoleonic  Wars ;  in  1820,  war  in  Greece, 
Russia  and  France  intervened  ;  1830,  Russia 
fights  to  enslave  Poland ;  1848,  the  whole 
of  Europe  in  a  blaze  of  war;    1853  to  1856, 


158  Lies ! 

Britain,  France,  and  Turkey  at  war  with 
Russia  in  the  Crimea ;  1857,  "the  Indian 
Mutiny ;  1859,  France  at  war  with  Austria  ; 
i860  to  1870,  continual  war  in  Italy  ;  1863 
to  1866,  Civil  War  in  America  ;  1864,  Prussia 
and  Denmark ;  1866,  Prussia  and  Austria ; 
1870,  Prussia  and  France ;  1877,  Russia 
and  Turkey  ;  1879,  Zulu  War  ;  1881,  British 
and  Boers ;  1882  to  1884,  British  war  in 
Egypt ;  1894,  China  and  Japan ;  1898, 
British  war  in  Egypt ;  1899  to  1902,  British 
and  the  Boers ;  1904,  Russia  and  Japan  ; 
1908,  Italy  and  Turkey ;  1912,  the  first 
Balkan  War ;  1913,  second  Balkan  War ; 
1914  to  1918,  the  Great  War/ 

Such  is  the  record  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  What  is  one  to  make  of  it  ?  It 
seems  to  make  the  Angels'  song  of  Christmas 
a  mockery — War  every  four  years  ;  and  you 
can  go  back  and  back  and  back  again,  and 
it  is  always  the  same ;  as  it  was  in  the  be- 
ginning— War,  as  it  is  now — War.  Don't 
let  us  forget  that  there  is  a  khaki  hne  that 
stands    between    us    and    barbarism,    near 

1  This  leaves  out  the  Spanish-American  War  and  the  endless 
border  wars  in  India. 


Lus  and  History  159 

Archangel.  As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is 
now,  and  are  we  to  add  "  ever  shall  be ''  ? 
That  is  the  question.  If  we  are  to  add  it, 
if  War  is  to  go  on  for  ever,  then  I  am  in  the 
dark,  and  I  can  find  no  meaning  and  no  God 
in  history,  at  least  no  God  that  I  (pan  love  or 
respect.  ' 

There  is  no  denying  that  the  picture  of 
man's  progress  is,  in  many  ways,  a  hideous 
one.  How  can  we  interpret  it  ?  What  is 
the  power  that  lies  behind  it  ?  The  great 
Prussian  historians  had  no  doubt  in  their 
minds  at  all.  There  is  a  God  behind  it,  they 
said,  the  Almighty  God  of  Force,  and  this 
strife  and  struggle  are  His  will.  You  will 
never  abolish  War,  they  said ;  it  is  the  law 
of  life,  and  the  only  cause  of  progress.  Right 
up  from  the  protoplasm  to  the  Kaiser,  struggle 
and  strife  is  the  law  of  progress,  and  the 
dream  of  perpetual  peace  is  an  idle  one,  fit 
only  for  old  women  and  fools.  It  is  a  dream 
which  will  never  be  realised ;  War  is  God's 
appointed  medicine  for  the  purging  and 
cleansing  of  the  nations.  Man  is  a  fighting 
animal ;  always  has  been,  and  always  will  be, 
and  that  is  the  naked  truth.    They  had  no 


i6o  Lies ! 

doubt  about  it ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
is  now,  and  ever  shall  be — War.  It  is  the 
will  of  the  everlasting  God. 

Now  against  that  conclusion  my  soul  first 
of  all  cries  out  and  rebels.  If  War  is  good, 
then  I  am  morally  mad,  and  I  know  no 
difference  between  good  and  evil.  I  can  see 
no  good  in  it ;  it  does  not  cleanse,  and  it 
does  not  purify,  and  it  does  not  uplift  the 
nations ;  it  kills  the  noble  and  the  strong,  it 
leaves  the  weak  and  vicious  to  breed  their 
kind ;  it  is  wasteful,  cruel,  and  inhuman ; 
it  is  vile ;  and  yet,  although  my  soul  cries 
out  against  the  conclusion,  the  evidence 
of  history  is  almost  powerful  enough  at  first 
sight  to  convince  my  intellect  that  it  is  true. 

The  interpretation  of  the  history  of  the 
world  by  the  militarists  seems  at  first  sight 
to  be  the  only  rational  one.  When  we  look 
at  the  story  of  the  past,  what  hope  can  we 
have  of  the  future  ?  It  all  seems  dark. 
But  it  isn't.  This  interpretation  of  history 
is  not  only  bad  morals,  it  is  sloppy  thinking ; 
it  is  based  upon  a  false  scientific  theory. 
The  history  of  man  is  the  history  of  a  move- 
ment.    We  are  always  moving  towards  some- 


Lies  and  History  i6i 

thing.  The  militarist  historians  teach  us  to 
find  the  meaning  of  this  movement  by  con- 
stantly looking  backwards  to  where  it  started 
from ;  they  bid  us  always  and  ever  look 
back  to  the  animals  and  to  the  savages  from 
whom  we  were  born,  and  find  in  animal  life 
and  in  savage  life  the  real  meaning  of  civilisa- 
tion. They  found  their  great  argument  for 
perpetual  War  on  the  struggle  for  existence 
revealed  in  Nature  and  among  animals  as 
the  method  of  their  progress. 

We  saw  in  a  previous  chapter  that  there 
was  no  War  in  a  human  sense  in  Nature,  and 
that  the  struggle  for  existence  was  not  really 
like  the  struggle  of  a  battlefield.  But  that  is 
not  the  real  falsehood  which  this  philosophy 
of  history  contains  :  the  real  falsehood  is  that 
it  bids  us  move  forward  looking  backwards, 
bids  us  take  a  walk  in  the  dark,  straining  our 
eyes  to  see  where  we  are  coming  from.  Now 
that  is  not  philosophy,  it  is  lunacy ;  if  we 
do  that  we  shall  break  our  necks,  which  is 
exactly  what  Europe  has  done  in  the  last 
four  years,  and  its  heart  as  well.  You  must 
look,  not  where  you  are  coming  from,  but 
where  you  are  going  to. 


i62  Lies ! 

There  is  only  one  real  movement  in  his- 
tory, and  that  movement  begins  when  an 
animal  stands  bleeding  and  dim -eyed  with 
death  but  fighting  stiU,  not  for  itself  but 
for  a  little  bundle  in  the  thicket  behind  it — 
its  child.  That  is  the  first  union,  the  mother 
and  child  against  the  world ;  then  comes  in 
the  father  and  you  get  a  family,  and  then  the 
union  of  families  makes  the  clan,  the  union 
of  clans  the  nation,  and  the  union  of  nations 
the  empire  of  nations ;  and  there  we  stand 
to-day  and  look,  not  back,  but  forward  to 
the  day  when  the  free  empires  shall  be 
leagued  and  the  world  shall  find  its  peace. 
We  look  forward,  and  we  have  a  rational 
right  to  look  forward  to  that  day ;  we  are 
much  more  rational  in  looking  forward  than 
they  in  looking  back. 

Now,  I  think,  hght  begins  to  dawn,  and 
the  clouds  begin  to  clear  away.  God  is 
love.  He  is  the  Author  of  Peace  and  the 
Lover  of  Concord.  He  is  the  Creator  of 
co-operation,  and  history  fairly  yells  at  you 
that  as  men  co-operate,  as  they  learn  to  love 
and  work  together,  so,  and  only  so,  do  they 
progress.     War   has   never,    and   can   never. 


Lies  and  History  163 

produce  anything  of  itself ;  all  it  ever  does 
and  can  ever  do  is  to  destroy  itself  and  clear 
the  way  for  a  wider  co-operation. 

The  truth  is  that  history  proclaims  that 
all  progress  is  caused  by  co-operation,  is 
caused  by  love,  is  caused  by  God,  but  not 
an  Almighty  God,  not  a  God  who  can  do 
everything  He  wishes  at  a  word.  Co-opera- 
tion is  at  work,  Love  is  at  work  in  the  world, 
and  always  has  been  ;  you  can  trace  its  work 
down  the  ages,  but  it  is  not  a  work  done  by 
magic  and  with  ease  :  it  is  a  work  of  struggle 
and  strife,  of  victory  wrung  from  defeat,  of 
failure  at  issues  with  success.  In  fact  we 
come  to  this  :  the  God  revealed  to  us  in 
history  is  the  God  revealed  to  us  upon  the 
Cross,  suffering,  sorrowing,  striving,  but  un- 
broken, crucified  to  rise  again. 

I  do  not  understand  how  man  can  fail  to 
see  in  the  history  of  the  world  the  vision  of 
the  suffering  God.  I  do  not  see  how^  man 
can  ever  see  in  it  the  vision  of  a  Supreme 
powerful  and  easily  triumphant  God.  I  do 
not  understand,  I  say,  how  any  man  with 
an  open  mind  can  fail  to  see  the  spirit  of 
love,   which  is   the   Spirit   of   God   revealed 


164  Lies  I 

in  Christ,  struggling  and  striving  to  express 
itself  down  the  ages — that  is  the  very  mean- 
ing of  civilisation.  Civilisation  means  a  world 
in  which  men  live  as  citizens  of  one  city, 
leading  a  life  founded,  not  upon  force,  but 
upon  mutual  good  faith,  honour,  honesty, 
and  truth,  and  that  is  the  world  towards 
which  we  are  moving,  and  have  been  clearly 
moving  all  through  history ;  and  it  is  that 
perfect  city,  wide  as  the  world  and  fair  as  a 
bride  adorned  for  her  husband,  which  explains 
the  dark  and  dreary  journey  along  roads  all 
stained  with  blood  which  man  has  been  called 
upon  to  make.  That  city  is  the  explanation, 
and  the  only  explanation  ;  you  must  explain 
a  journey  by  the  end  it  has  in  view — ^it  is 
madness,  I  say,  madness  to  explain  a  journey 
towards  the  light  by  the  darkness  in  which  it 
started — it  is  always  the  end  that  explains 
the  beginning,  and  not  the  beginning  that 
explains  the  end.  That  is  the  very  first 
law  of  thought,  and  on  that  we  take  our 
stand. 

On  rational  grounds  I  assert  with  all  the 
power  in  my  being  that  the  interpretation 
of  history  as   a  progress  towards   the  new 


Lies  and  History  165 

Jerusalem  of  God  is  the  only  interpretation 
which  is  really  possible.  The  Christian  philo- 
sophy of  history  is  the  only  real  philosophy 
which  exists.  The  militarist  philosophy  is 
not  a  philosophy,  but  a  cry  of  despair,  and 
a  denial  of  all  philosophies ;  it  has  no  end 
in  view ;  it  represents  Hfe  as  a  struggle  to 
get  to  nowhere  in  particular,  and  a  strife 
without  any  reward. 

Man  is  a  fighting  animal,  and,  please  God, 
always  will  be,  but  the  fighting  instinct, 
like  all  other  instincts,  grows,  and,  as  it 
grows,  changes.  In  the  noble  animal  the 
fighting  instinct  is  simply  the  instinct  of 
self-preservation ;  it  is  flaming  rage  which 
is  the  strongest  weapon  of  the  beast  towards 
securing  its  perfection.  When  Nature  makes 
her  great  leap  from  the  animal  to  the 
human,  the  instinct  remains,  but  something 
is  added  to  it.  The  lowest  kind  of  man 
will  fight,  not  merely  for  his  preservation, 
but  for  what  he  calls  his  rights ;  he  w^ill 
fight,  not  only  from  instinct  of  lust  to  live, 
but  because  he  feels  that  he  has  what  he 
calls  ''  a  right  to  live."  As  the  man  develops 
he  will  fight,  not  merely  for  his  rights,  but 


i66  Lies ! 

for  Right,  a  wider,  larger  conception  which 
carries  him  into  a  world  outside  himself ; 
he  will  not  only  fight  for  Right,  but  he  will 
lose  sight  of  his  own  rights,  even  of  his 
elementary  right  to  live,  and  will  give  his 
life  for  what  is  right,  and  so  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  passes  into  the  instinct 
of  self-sacrifice,  and  that  instinct  lies  at  the 
heart  of  civilisation. 

As  with  man  so  with  nations.  The  herd 
of  animals  will  fight  savagely  for  its  life ; 
they  will  join  together  to  protect  one 
another  like  a  pack  of  wolves,  or  to  seek  a 
common  prey,  and  when  the  battle  is  over 
they  will  eat  their  own  wounded.  The 
savage  tribe  will  fight  like  animals,  united 
for  attack  or  defence,  and  when  the  battle 
is  over  they  will  eat  their  prisoners.  As 
the  tribe  grows  into  a  nation,  and  they  go 
to  fight  not  for  robbery  but  for  national 
rights,  the  idea  of  universal  justice  comes 
m ;  they  learn  to  respect  the  persons  of  their 
prisoners.  The  more  civilised  nation  will 
only  be  roused  to  arms  by  the  call  to  fight 
for  right.  They  will  treat  their  prisoners 
often  generously.     War  is  becoming  horrible 


Lies  and  History  167 

to  them  ;  they  feel  the  shame  of  blood  upon 
their  hands.  Under  the  banner  of  right,  of 
universal  justice,  they  will  crave  a  union 
which  will  abolish  fighting  altogether.  So 
down  the  road  of  Calvary  comes  the  Prince 
of  Peace  with  bleeding  hands  and  feet, 
crucified  but  conquering,  from  Palestine  to 
Paris,  where,  over  the  Council  tables,  the 
battle  between  the  old  and  the  new,  between 
the  animal  and  the  God  in  man,  is  fought. 
Is  it  to  be  a  final  victory  ?  That  is  the 
question.  How  great  will  His  army  be  ? 
The  root  of  the  matter  is  in  the  British 
people.  I  say  with  pride  they  are  the  most 
incurably  civilised  people  in  the  world ;  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  is  in  them,  the  spirit  that 
will  fight  for  Right,  the  spirit  that  transforms 
animal  pugnacity  into  Christian  self-sacrifice. 
I  have  seen  the  evidence  of  it  on  a  hundred 
battlefields.  Have  we  killed  prisoners  ?  Yes, 
because  the  animal  remains  in  us  still,  and 
the  passions  of  battle  are  terribly  strong. 
Have  we  suffered  for  prisoners ;  have  we 
risked  our  lives  to  save  them,  and  have  we 
shared  our  food  with  them  ;  have  we  shared 
our  fags  with  them ;    have  we  felt  the  touch 


i68  Lies  I 

of  Nature,  or  is  it  the  touch  of  Christ,  that 
makes  the  whole  worid  kin  ?  Yes,  we  have  ; 
because,  after  all,  Christ  is  stronger  than 
the  strongest  passion,  and  clings  to  us 
more  closely  than  our  oldest  sins.  Christ 
crucified  is  in  the  world  reveaUng  God  to 
us,  the  crucified  and  suffering  God.  He 
was  crucified  at  times  in  the  best  men  in 
France,  for  we  are  not  perfect  yet ;  animal 
passion,  barbaric  cruelty,  wait  just  outside 
the  door  of  our  souls,  ready  to  break  in. 
There  is  never  more  between  civilisation 
and  barbarism  than  the  wall  partition  which 
is  the  love  of  God,  but  that  wall  becomes 
stronger  as  the  years  pass  by,  and  will  at  the 
last  be  strong  as  iron,  for  the  weakness  of  God 
is  stronger  than  man,  and  it  is  that  weak  God 
with  bleeding,  pleading,  outstretched  hands 
who  calls  us  to  give  ourselves  for  Him, 
armed  with  the  weakness  of  His  strength. 

The  fighting  instinct  of  the  British  race, 
behind  which  tender  women  and  little  children 
have  sheltered  now  for  years,  will,  when  it 
answers  to  the  trumpet  call  of  Christ,  be  the 
power  which  will  lead  and  lift  us  into  the 
City  of  our  God. 


LIES  AND  THE  BIBLE 

Somebody — I  don't  know  who  it  was — 
said  somewhere — I  don't  know  where  it 
is — that  every  preacher  of  a  new  truth  had 
to  go  through  three  stages  of  opposition. 
First  of  all,  people  said  it  was  nonsense. 
Secondly,  they  said  that  it  was  contrary  to 
the  Bible.  And  thirdly,  that  everybody  had 
always  believed  it.  Of  course  the  last  of 
these  stages  is  much  the  most  deadly,  because 
nobody  cares  twopence  about  what  every- 
body believes.  But  the  second  one  has,  in 
modem  times,  come  to  be  regarded  as  of 
less  and  less  importance.  The  Bible  has 
not  got  the  authority  that  it  used  to  have. 
People  don't  read  it  as  they  used  to  do.  I 
wonder  why  ?  If  anything  can  bring  us 
to  the  God  we  need,  to  the  God  who  must 
be  both  the  foundation  and  the  coping- 
stone  of  that  perfect  state  we  seek  to  build 
— ^if  anything  can  bring  us  to  Him,  and  show 
Him  to  us  so  that  we  can  see  Him,  not  through 

169 


170  Lies  I 

a  glass  darkly,  but  face  to  face,  surely  it 
ought  to  be  the  inspired  writings,  the  Word 
of  God. 

And  yet  it  is  not  so  easy  to  find  God  in 
the  Bible.  A  person  sitting  down  to  read  the 
Bible  as  he  would  read  William  McDougal's 
big  book  on  Body  and  Mind,  i.e.  with  the 
object  of  getting  out  of  it  a  great  idea,  would, 
after  he  had  begun  at  Genesis  and  ended  at 
Revelation,  probably  finish  up  with  a  mind 
like  a  jumble  sale.  Just  hke  a  jumble  sale! 
For  the  essence  of  a  jumble  sale  is  that  good 
things  and  bad  things  are  all  lumped  in 
together,  and  you  may  get  anything  from  an 
antediluvian  umbrella  to  a  priceless  print. 
So  it  is  with  the  Bible.  It  does  not  contain 
one  idea  of  God,  one  picture  of  God,  but 
many  ideas,  many  pictures — good,  bad,  and 
indifferent. 

I  can  hear  somebody  indignantly  saying, 
"  Don't  you  believe  then  that  the  Bible  is 
inspired  ?  "  To  be  perfectly  honest,  I  don't. 
What  do  you  mean  by  inspired  ?  The 
ordinary  meaning  of  the  verb  *'  inspire  "  is 
to  put  spirit  into  people.  You  talk  about 
officers  inspiring  their  men  upon  the  field  of 


Lies  and  the  Bible  171 

battle  to  deeds  of  gallantry,  or  a  political 
leader  inspiring  his  followers  with  enthu- 
siasm. But  it  is  always  into  people  that 
the  spirit  is  put,  into  men  and  women.  You 
can  only  inspire  people ;  you  cannot  inspire 
things.  Now  the  Bible  is  a  thing.  It  is  a 
book ;  it  is  a  bundle  of  paper  covered  over 
with  hieroglyphics.  It  is  a  queer  mixture  of 
rags  and  printers'  ink ;  and  you  cannot 
inspire  rags  and  printers'  ink  any  more  than 
you  can  inspire  brass  bands  or  barrel-organs. 
An  inspired  barrel-organ  is  a  terrible  thought. 
You  may  inspire  a  man  to  play  a  piano,  but 
to  talk  about  inspiring  a  piano  is  pure  non- 
sense. And  with  all  due  respect  to  the 
ancients,  the  talk  about  the  inspiration  of 
the  Bible  is  pure  nonsense  too.  The  question 
is  not,  "  Is  the  Bible  inspired  ?  " — that  is  a 
nonsense  question  ;  just  as  much  nonsense  as 
asking  :   ''  Are  cabbages  conceited  ?  " 

The  question  is,  Was  the  Bible  written 
by  inspired  men  ?  And  in  answer  to  that 
question,  I  would  answer  that  I  am  quite 
sure  it  was.  What  do  you  mean  by  an 
inspired  man  ?  I  mean  a  man  who,  by 
prayer,   by  pure  and  holy  living,   by  deep 


172  Lies ! 

and  earnest  thought,  and  by  the  exercise  of 
those  powers  of  communion  with  the  Unseen 
which  all  men  in  varying  degrees  possess, 
has  come  into  contact  with  the  Spirit  who 
works  in  and  beyond  this  wondrous  universe 
of  ours.  Was  the  Bible  written  by  such 
men  ?  I  say  "  Yes."  WeU,  then,  does  that 
not  guarantee  that  it  is  true,  all  true,  and 
every  part  of  it  equally  true  ?  My  good 
gracious,  no !  I  said  men,  inspired  men, 
not  machines,  or  clerks  taking  down  dicta- 
tion. (There  is  a  clerk  taking  down  this 
dictation.  For  the  time  being  he  is  not  a 
man,  and  he  is  certainly  not  inspired,  because 
I  believe  he  is  falhng  asleep.  If  he  were 
to  become  a  man  he  would  almost  certainly 
start  to  argue,  and  the  writing  of  this  chapter 
would  end  either  in  an  endless  argument, 
a  free  fight,  or  in  something  very  different 
from  what  it  is  going  to  be,  because  it  would 
not  be  my  chapter  but  ours — his  and  mine.) 

The  point  is  that  the  Bible  was  not 
written  by  shorthand  writers  or  by  clerks, 
but  by  men.  It  is  God's  word,  written  not 
merely  by  men,  but  through  men,  and  men 
exercising  all  the  powers  of  men  and  suffering 


Lies  and  the  Bible  173 

from  all  human  weaknesses.  Man  is  now, 
and  always  has  been,  both  sinful  and  stupid, 
and  so  the  Bible  was  written  by  sinful  and 
stupid  people  inspired  by  God.  Is  that  not 
very  disrespectful  ?  Can  a  sinful  and  stupid 
person  be  inspired  ?  If  they  cannot,  then 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  inspiration, 
because  those  are  the  only  people  that  God 
has,  or  has  ever  had,  to  inspire.  The  honest 
fact  is  that  it  is  very  often  the  tremendous 
consciousness  in  the  writers  of  the  Bible  of 
both  their  sin  and  their  stupidity  that  makes 
us  feel  that  they  are  inspired. 

I  suppose  that  no  reUgious  person  would 
doubt  that  the  author  of  Psalm  51  was 
inspired,  and  it  is  the  writer's  utter  self- 
abasement  that  makes  us  sure  that  he  has 
seen  the  vision  of  the  Highest.  *'  Woe  is 
m,e,''  cries  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  prophets, 
"  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.'*  His  inspiration  made  him  see  his 
own  stupidity  and  sin,  and  feel  the  pressure 
of  the  stupidity  and  sin — the  imperfect 
knowledge  and  the  wilful  wickedness — of  the 


174 


Lies  I 


people  among  whom  he  dwelt,  and  whose 
thoughts  he  could  not  help  but  share  in 
part. 

In  thinking  about  the  Bible  we  must  get 
the  ground  clear  on  this  first,  that  inspira- 
tion does  not  do  away  with  either  human 
sin  or  human  limitations.  Part  of  men's 
discontent  with  the  Bible,  like  their  dis- 
content with  the  universe,  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  they  have  at  the  back  of  their  minds 
the  ancient  misconception  of  an  absolutely 
almighty  being  who  can  do  anything  he 
chooses.  They  think  that  just  as  God  spoke 
the  word  and  the  stars  came  out,  spoke  yet 
again  and  the  flowers  grew,  waved  His  wand 
and  made  a  universe,  as  Cinderella's  Fairy 
Godmother  made  coaches  out  of  pumpkins, 
so  this  Almighty  God  has  nothing  else  to  do 
but  touch  men's  lips  and  from  their  mouths 
perfect  truth  in  perfect  words  will  flow  like 
golden  rivers.  That  idea  is  as  impossible 
and  absurd  with  regard  to  the  Bible  as  it  is 
with  regard  to  the  universe — which  includes 
it.  There  is  as  little  trace  of  this  unlimited 
and  supreme  Being  in  the  Bible  as  there  is 
in  history  or  in  Nature. 


Lies  and  the  Bible  175 

The  Bible,  indeed,  is  part — and  a  very 
important  part — of  that  larger  Bible,  in- 
cluding all  Science  and  all  History,  which 
tells  the  story  of  how  God  has  revealed 
Himself  to  man  and  has  made  him  fit  to 
understand  the  revelation.  It  shows  us  how 
God  had  to  overcome,  first  of  all,  man's 
ignorance  and  imperfection,  and,  secondly, 
his  wilful  rebellion  and  refusal  to  learn  ;  and 
how  that  process — like  every  other  process 
of  which  we  know  anything  in  the  universe — 
is  a  slow  and  painful  one,  marred  by  many 
failures,  delayed  by  many  defeats,  a  ''  via 
dolorosa,*'  wet  with  the  blood  and  the  tears 
of  man  and  God.  The  God  of  the  Bible 
spoke  through  the  prophet  Isaiah  and  cried : 
"  I  have  nourished  and  brought  up  children, 
and  they  have  rebelled  against  me.  The  ox 
knoweth  his  owner  and  the  ass  his  master's 
crib,  but  Israel  doth  not  know,  my  people 
doth  not  consider." 

The  God  of  the  Bible  spoke  through  the 
lips  of  Jesus  Christ  and  cried :  ''  O  sinful 
and  perverse  generation,  how  long  shall  I  be 
with  you  ?  How  long  shall  I  suffer  you  ?  " 
The  God  behind  the  Bible  is  the  God  on  the 


176  Lies  I 

Cross,  the  Cross  of  His  own  love,  expressing 
itself  in  creation,  which  limits,  thwarts, 
tortures,  but  never  overcomes  Him.  God's 
message  through  the  Bible  in  order  to  reach 
my  soul  has  to  overcome  first  of  all  the  sins 
and  the  Hmitations  of  the  man  in  far-off 
days  whom  the  Spirit  moved  to  write ;  and 
then  it  has  to  overcome  the  sin  and  stupidity 
of  the  reader  in  these  present  days  whom  the 
Spirit  moves  to  read.  And  if  that  reader  is 
me,  that  is  going  to  be  a  job  ;  and  if  that 
reader  is  you,  gentle  reader,  do  you  imagine 
that  it  is  going  to  be  a  sinecure  ? 

When  one  sits  down  to  read  the  Bible  one 
destroys  time  and  space,  not  by  any  super- 
natural or  magic  means,  but  by  this  wondrous 
gift  that  God,  in  the  course  of  the  years, 
bestowed  upon  the  minds  of  men — the  gift 
of  written  speech.  One  destroys  time  and 
space,  and  stands  in  their  own  land,  and  in 
their  own  time,  before  a  long  line  of  Jewish 
peasants,  princes,  poets,  prophets,  and  philo- 
sophers, and  each  in  the  language  of  his 
time  and  in  the  language  of  his  land  (which 
is  made  more  obscure  to  us  by  having  been 
translated)  tries  to   tell  us  what  God  means 


Lies  and  the  Bible  177 

to  him  and  to  the  people  of  his  time.  It 
is  impossible  that  these  old  friends  of  ours 
should  have  escaped  altogether  from  the 
limitations  of  knowledge  in  their  time  or 
from  the  sins  and  moral  stupidities  of  their 
time.  The  light  that  comes  to  men  from 
God  comes  not  Hke  the  lightning-flash,  but 
like  the  dawn — first  the  darkness,  then  the 
long  twilight,  and  then  the  blood-red  beauty 
of  the  dawn  that  ushers  in  the  glory  of  the 
day. 

And  in  the  time  of  darkness  and  of  the 
dim  twilight  dreadful  deeds  were  done  and 
dreadful  thoughts  were  thought — thoughts 
and  deeds  that  must  have  wrung  the  soul  of 
God  with  pain.  God  spoke,  but  men  did 
not  fully  understand  His  speech,  often  did 
not  understand  it  at  all,  but  followed  blindly 
their  own  lusts  and  desires,  giving  them  His 
name.  There  are  some  dreadful  stories  in 
the  Bible  and  dreadful  ideas  of  God.  *'  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  I  have  marked 
that  which  Amalek  did  to  Israel,  how  he  set 
himself  against  him  in  the  way  when  he 
came  up  out  of  Egypt.  Now  go  and  smite 
Amalek,   and  utterly  destroy  all  that  they 


178  Lies  I 

have,  and  spare  them  not;  but  slay  both 
man  and  woman,  infant  and  suckhng,  ox 
and  sheep,  camel  and  ass/'  It  is  difficult 
to  distinguish  that  particular  "  Lord  of 
Hosts ''  from  either  the  Kaiser  or  the  Devil. 
Either  might  have  given  such  orders.  That 
God  should  have  given  them  is  beyond  belief. 

That  is  by  no  means  the  only  time  that 
God  appears  in  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
garb  of  an  Eastern  Sultan.  As  Mr.  Harold 
Anson  remarks  in  his  Essay  on  Prayer  as 
Understanding y  if  we  were  suddenly  asked  to 
say  under  what  circumstances  it  was  that  a 
God  was  represented  in  the  Old  Testament 
to  have  killed  indiscriminately  thirty 
thousand  persons,  good  and  bad,  men 
women  and  children  alike,  we  would  probably 
find  it  difficult  for  the  moment  to  remember 
whether  it  was  because  they  wanted  a 
different  kind  of  food,  and  asked  for  it,  or 
because  they  grumbled  at  His  having 
swallowed  up  by  an  earthquake  Korah, 
Dathan,  and  Abiram,  or  because  they  stopped 
the  Ark  from  falling  off  an  ox-cart,  01 
mocked  a  prophet  who  had  a  bald  head. 

I  remember  a  sergeant  of  Engineers  saying, 


Lies  and  the  Bible  xyq 


in  a  debate  on  this  subject  which  we  held  in 
a  ruined  barn,  that  Prussianism  was  taught 
broadcast  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  in 
his  behef  the  Old  Testament  teaching  had  a 
great   deal   to   do   with   the   creation   of  it. 
And  when  one  remembers  the  horrid  piety 
of  some  of  the  creators  of  modern  Prussia, 
one  cannot  help  feehng  that  if  the  remark 
is  not  true  it  certainly  contains  truth. 
Just  a  few  lines,  my  dear  Augusta, 
To  let  you  know  we've  had  a  buster. 
Ten  thousand  Frenchmen  sent  below — 
Praise  God  from  whom  all  blessings  flow ! 

There  is  no  doubt  that  cruelty  and  in- 
justice have  been  often  clothed  with  the 
robes  of  strength  and  righteousness  by  an 
appeal  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  the 
indiscriminate  reading  in  church  of  badly- 
chosen  passages  from  it  without  explanation 
must  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  minds  of  both 
young  and  old.  I  have  used  the  Revised 
Lectionary,  and  it  has  only  made  me  feel 
that  the  revision  wants  revising.  But  no 
revised  Lectionary  would  be  of  any  use  un- 
less we  could  make  people  understand  what 
the  Bible  really  is,  unless  we  can  make  them 


i8o  Lies  I 

see  through  it  all  the  struggle  of  the  God 
revealed  in  Christ  to  reveal  Himself  to  men. 
In  the  light  of  that  knowledge  one  can  read 
even  the  most  dreadful  passages  with  some 
profit. 

There  are  in  the  Bible  the  three  periods — 
the  darkness,  the  twihght,  and  the  dawn. 
The  darkness  was  the  darkness  of  the  uni- 
versal worship  of  many  gods.  The  Hebrews, 
like  all  the  other  peoples  round  them, 
regarded  the  doctrine  of  the  one  God  as  a 
strange  and  awful  novelty.  To  us  the  Com- 
mandment "  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods 
but  Me  ''  seems  out  of  date.  Men  now  be- 
lieve either  in  one  God  or  in  no  God  at  all. 
To  the  world  in  which  the  earliest  Bible 
writers  wrote,  both  these  beliefs  would  have 
appeared  equally  nonsensical.  The  worship 
of  many  gods  was  as  natural,  and  as  strongly 
secured  in  the  trenches  of  tradition  and 
ancient  system,  as  the  worship  of  the  one 
God  is  now.  These  many  gods  were  all 
made  in  man's  image,  they  shared  his  weak- 
nesses and  his  sins.  They  were  unjust, 
cruel,  licentious,  and  capricious — in  fact,  to 
put  it   bluntly,   they    were    as   blackguardy 


Lies  and  the  Bible  i8i 

as  their  worshippers.  And  what  they  de- 
manded of  their  worshippers  was  what  a 
blackguard  demands  of  another  blackguard 
— food  and  drink  and  servile  obedience  with 
plenty  of  flattery.  These  gods  were  like 
debauched  oriental  princelings.  Each  tribe 
had  its  own  god  who  went  out  to  war  with 
the  tribe,  and  when  the  tribe  was  defeated 
the  god  was  defeated.  The  people  of  those 
days  never  doubted  the  existence  of  the 
gods  of  other  tribes,  and  would  often  offer 
sacrifices  to  them  as  a  kind  of  bribe  before 
a  battle.  This  popular  belief  is  the  back- 
ground of  the  whole  of  the  early  Old  Testa- 
ment teaching.  It  was  all  along  the  belief 
of  the  masses  of  the  people. 

And  the  Bible  is  the  history  of  the  evolu- 
tion, through  struggle  for  its  existence,  of 
the  majestic  belief  in  one  God,  governing 
the  whole  world,  and  demanding  of  all  men 
not  gifts  but  goodness,  not  flattery  but  loyal 
obedience,  not  servility  but  love.  The 
struggle  divides  itself  into  three  roughly- 
marked  periods — the  period  before  the  Exile, 
the  period  between  the  Exile  and  the  coming 
of  Christ,  and  the  Christian  period. 


1 82  Lies  ! 

In  the  first  period  we  see  the  twihght 
strugghng  with  the  darkness,  we  see  the 
teachers  calhng  the  people  to  the  worship  of 
one  God,  and  of  one  God  only,  not  denying 
the  existence  of  other  gods,  but  insisting  that 
Israel  had  but  one  God,  who  was  the  most 
powerful  and  the  most  worthy  of  worship 
of  all  gods,  and  bound  to  conquer,  and 
trample  under  foot  all  other  gods  in  the  end, 
and  bound  to  do  this  for  a  strange  reason, 
namely,  that  he  was  a  good  God,  a  God  who 
demanded  justice  and  mercy.  You  hear  the 
teachers  calling  the  people,  and  the  people 
making  futile  and  spasmodic  efforts  to  re- 
spond, but  always  falling  back  to  the  worship 
of  the  Baalim,  the  native  gods  of  the  lands 
into  which  they  had  come.  It  is  an  intensely 
human  struggle — this  call  of  the  prophets 
to  the  people  of  their  day  seemed  a  strange 
and  novel  one,  and  the  call  of  the  Baalim, 
with  their  little  shrines  on  the  side  of  every 
green  hill,  their  joyous  feasts  and  sensual 
worship,  seemed  so  natural,  so  homely,  and 
so  certainly  true.  After  all  it  is  very  like 
the  struggle  of  a  child  to  come  to  Sunday 
School  for  the  love  of  God,   and  not  with 


Lies  and  the  Bible  183 


the  thought  of  the  Sunday  School  treat. 
"  First  that  which  is  natural  and  afterwards 
that  which  is  spiritual/'  To  the  prophet 
their  backslidings  and  rebellions  seemed  pure 
wickedness  and  disloyalty,  but  to  the  great 
God  they  must  have  been  pitiful,  for  there 
must  always  have  been  a  Voice  that  cried 
within  the  heart  of  God,  '*  Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do/' 

We  do  not  understand  this  early  struggle 
unless  we  see  in  it  the  beginning  of  that  age- 
long strife  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit, 
and  unless  we  see  behind  it  the  form  of  One 
Who  is  as  the  Son  of  Man  hanging  upon  a 
Cross.  That  is  the  first  stage  of  the  age- 
long crucifixion  of  Christ  which  is  not 
finished  yet. 

Think  ye  the  ancient  gods  are  dead  ? 

They  Hve,  and  work  their  will. 
Before  their  shrines  the  sons  of  men 

Bow  down  and  grovel  still. 

Still  Venus  stands  with  swelling  breasts, 

And  side-long  glancing  eyes, 
And  lures  lust-drunken  devotees 

To  trust  her  when  she  lies. — 


184  Lies  I 

The  ancient  lie  that  lust  is  love. 
And  passion  what  it  seems, 

A  lotus  land  where  men  may  find 
The  heaven  of  their  dreams. 

The  old,  eternal,  cruel  smile 
That  lulls  men's  souls  to  sleep, 

And  wraps  them  in  a  paradise, 
That  they  may  wake — and  weep. 

She  smiles— ^and  counts  her  victims  up 
Young  wife  and  little  child, 

The  festering  filth  of  bodies. 
By  the  lure  of  lust  defiled. 

Blind  babies,  crying  for  the  Hght, 
Strong  men  with  open  sores — 

The  never-ceasing  sacrifice 

Throngs  through  her  temple  doors. 

And,  last  of  all  her  triumph, 
There  comes  to  keep  His  tryst. 

The  God,  with  bleeding  hands  and  feet, 
Still  crucified — the  Christ. 

She  still  can  take  and  nail  Him 
To  the  torture  of  the  Cross, 

She  still  can  drive  into  His  soul 
The  iron  of  His  loss. 

She  still  can  mock  and  lead  Him 
To  the  ever-open  grave 


Lies  and  the  Bible  185 

Of  the  souls  He  loves  and  suffers 
All  His  agony  to  save. 

Dear  God  !   That  loose  lascivious  face 

That  leers  in  my  own  soul. 
Canst  Thou  not  smash  it  with  Thy  Cross, 

And  make  me  clean  and  whole  ? 

The  battle  of  the  Old  Testament  in  its 
first  stage  is  spiritually  the  primitive  battle 
that  every  full-blooded,  lusty  youngster  fights 
in  the  crowded  streets  of  the  city  at  night 
when  the  gods  of  the  flesh  are  calling  and 
the  still  small  voice  is  dim.  And  to  the 
great  God  both  are  infinitely  painful  and 
infinitely  piteous. 

The  ancient  Baalim  were  coarser,  grosser, 
but  scarcely  less  powerful  gods  than  our 
modern  ones,  calling  ever  to  the  flesh  against 
the  spirit,  to  the  natural  and  obvious  against 
the  supernatural  and  the  unseen.  The 
ancient  temples  all  are  broken  and  heathen 
shrines  lie  in  the  dust,  but  the  heathen  gods 
were  human  passions  deified,  and  their  power 
is  not  dead.  You  can  see  their  victims  in 
every  city  street. 

Even  over  the  minds  of  the  teachers  who 


1 86  Lies  I 

felt  rather  than  saw  the  dawn  within  their 
hearts,  these  gods  had  a  powerful  influence, 
and  the  one  good  God  to  whom  they  called 
was  good  with  a  very  limited  goodness.  He 
demanded  justice  from  His  own  people  to 
His  own  people ;  He  demanded  even  kind- 
ness and  mercy ;  but  to  the  outside  world 
He  was  as  cruel,  as  fierce,  as  implacable  as 
any  tyrant  could  be.  It  was  this  God  of 
limited  goodness  who  gave  the  dreadful 
battle  orders  to  the  judges  and  commanders 
of  the  Chosen  Race.  He  still  demands 
bloody  sacrifice  and  propitiation.  Those 
early  preachers  taught  the  people  that  sacri- 
fice alone  would  not  satisfy  their  God,  but 
they  still  taught  that  He  demanded  sacrifice. 
God  only  succeeded  in  getting  part  of  the 
truth  through  the  barrier  of  their  ignorance 
and  sin.     That  is  the  period  of  the  twilight. 

The  dawn  came  during  the  Exile.  The 
God  of  the  ancient  prophets  was  pledged  to 
protect  His  people  because  they  were  His 
people.  He  was  pledged  to  lead  them  to 
victory,  and  pledged  to  protect  their  Holy 
City,  and  to  make  it  in  the  end  queen  of  all 
the  earth.     But  this  pledge  was  not  fulfilled 


Lies  and  the  Bible  187 

The  people  saw  their  land  swept  by  the  rival 
armies  of  the  enormous  empires  that  lay  to 
the  north  and  south.  Again  and  again  they 
stood  on  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  pale  and 
wan  with  hunger,  and  looked  out  into  the 
darkness,  only  lit  by  the  glare  of  burning 
villages.  They  saw  their  women  dishonoured 
and  their  children  murdered  ;  in  fact,  they 
saw  War,  and  the  most  awful  of  all  things, 
defeat  in  War,  and  at  last  they  were  carried 
away  exiles  to  a  foreign  land,  leaving  behind 
them  a  broken  city,  and  a  wretched  remnant 
that  starved  within  its  shattered  walls. 
There  by  the  waters  of  Babylon  they  sat 
down  and  wept  when  they  remembered  Sion, 
and  hung  up  their  harps  upon  the  trees 
because  they  could  not  sing  the  Lord's  song 
in  a  strange  land.  But  that  tribulation 
ended  the  battle  between  the  one  God  and 
the  many  as  a  form  of  belief.  Those  of  them 
in  whom  the  call  of  their  teachers  had  found 
response  found  another  teacher  in  Ezekiel, 
who  lifted  them  up  to  a  higher  and  nobler 
conception  of  God,  a  God  who  was  the  only 
real  God,  to  whom  the  idols  were  but  bits 
of  wood  and  stone,  and  who  ruled  with 
7* 


i88  Lies  I 

absolute  justice  and  absolute  righteousness 
over  the  whole  world.  They  were  told  that 
the  exile  and  the  bitter  suffering  it  entailed 
were  the  judgments  and  punishments  visited 
by  God  upon  His  people  for  their  many  sins. 
But  they  were  told  that  the  day  would  come 
when  the  people,  purged  and  purified  by 
suffering,  should  march  back  in  joy  and 
build  once  more  their  home — the  New  Jeru- 
salem, which  would  indeed  be  the  City  of 
God.  And  this  was  what  actually  came  to 
pass.  About  the  year  549  B.C.  a  new  prophetic 
voice  is  heard  crying  to  the  people,  and  his 
message  is  a  message  of  hope  which  thrills 
us  still  with  the  glorious  promise  which 
remains  to  be  fulfilled  :  "  Comfort  ye,  com- 
fort ye  my  people,  saith  your  God.  Speak 
ye  comfortably  to  Jerusalem,  and  say  unto 
her  that  her  warfare  is  accomplished,  and  that 
her  iniquity  is  pardoned.  For  she  hath 
received  of  the  Lord's  hands  double  for  all 
her  sins.  .  .  .  Behold,  the  Lord  will  come  with 
a  strong  hand,  and  His  arm  shall  rule  for 
Him.  Behold,  His  reward  is  with  Him  and 
His  work  before  Him.  He  shall  feed  His 
flock  like  a  shepherd.     He  shall  gather  the 


Lies  and  the  Bible  189 

lambs  with  His  arm,  and  carry  them  in 
His  bosom,  and  shall  gently  lead  those  that 
are  with  young." 

The  fulfilment  of  this  promise  was  the 
return  to  Jerusalem  under  Zerubbabel  as 
king  and  Joshua  as  high  priest  in  the 
times  of  Cyrus  of  the  remnant  of  the  people 
who,  during  their  exile,  had  not  forgotten 
the  Holy  City  or  the  little  hill  of  Hermon, 
had  not  forgotten  the  call  of  the  spirit  in 
the  land  of  the  flesh,  and  had  been  exiles 
indeed ;  who,  having  walked  in  the  twilight 
of  the  dawn,  refused  to  go  back  to  the  dark- 
ness, to  the  worship  of  the  idols  of  the  flesh. 
In  this  New  Jerusalem  there  was  no  ques- 
tion of  the  worship  of  many  gods — the 
worship  of  the  one  God  was  established. 
But  the  city  was  built  by  men  and  women 
starved  in  body,  and  only  buoyed  up  by  a 
tremendous  enthusiasm.  Its  foundations  were 
dug  by  men  who  laid  down  their  swords 
beside  them  while  they  used  their  spades. 
The  New  Jerusalem  gave  but  feeble  promise 
of  becoming  in  reality  the  queen  of  all  the 
earth.  Her  people  were  persecuted,  beset 
by  enemies  on  all  sides.     Again  and  again 


I  go  Lies ! 

they  fell  under  tyrannies  and  were  ruled  by 
foreigners.  They  saw  their  temple  defiled 
and  the  abomination  of  desolation  set  up 
in  the  holy  place.  And  now  the  great  puzzle 
of  the  problem  of  evil,  and  of  why  God 
permits  it,  begins  to  come  up  before  men's 
minds.  God  to  them  was  still  ''  He  that 
sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the  earth,  and 
the  inhabitants  thereof  are  as  grasshoppers  ; 
that  stretcheth  out  the  heavens  as  a  curtain, 
and  spreadeth  them  out  as  a  tent  to  dwell 
in.*'  He  was  the  almighty  sultan  of  the 
Universe,  *'  Who  measured  the  waters  in  the 
hollow  of  His  hand,  and  meted  out  heaven 
with  a  span,  weighed  the  mountains  in  scales, 
and  the  hills  in  a  balance,''  and  He  was 
bound  to  do  right. 

Why  didn't  He  do  it?  You  hear  the 
cry  of  that  question  in  the  pages  of  the 
book  of  Job,  in  Psalms  like  the  73rd  Psalm  : 
''  Behold,  these  are  the  ungodly,  who  prosper 
in  the  world.  Then  set  I  to  understand  this, 
but  it  was  too  hard  for  me."  The  only 
answer  that  came  to  their  questions  was  that 
suffering  was  the  punishment  of  sin,  that  the 
almighty     tyrant,     armed     with     pestilence, 


Lies  and  the  Bible  igi 

plague,  famine,  war,  and  disease,  was  driving 
them  to  His  will.  But  there  were  gleams 
of  a  higher  truth.  The  53rd  chapter  of 
Isaiah  is  the  highest  point  to  which  the  Old 
Testament  attains.  The  prophet  sees  the 
truth,  that  a  man  may  suffer,  not  because 
he  is  too  bad,  but  because  he  is  too  good ; 
that  he  may  suffer,  not  for  his  own  sins,  but 
for  the  sins  of  other  people ;  and  that  a 
nation  may  suffer,  not  for  its  own  wrong- 
doing, but  for  the  wrong-doings  of  other 
nations  ;  that  the  sufferer  may  be  the  friend 
and  not  the  victim  of  the  great,  good  God. 
He  sees  the  vision  of  the  Great  Deliverer, 
who  was  '*  a  Man  of  Sorrows  and  acquainted 
with  grief,  despised  and  rejected  of  men," 
upon  whom  God  had  "  laid  the  iniquity  of 
us  all.'*  He  grasped  that  truth  by  the  light 
of  a  fire  that  burned  up  in  the  flames  of 
affliction  all  Israel's  earthly  hopes  and  dreams, 
the  truth  that  the  greatest  redemptive  power 
of  the  world  was  the  power  of  redemptive 
suffering. 

But  it  still  remains  a  mystery.  Still  God 
remains  enthroned,  sending  His  plagues 
upon   the   just   and   the   unjust   alike.     The 


192  Lies ! 

only  solution  which  they  could  come  to  was 
the  solution  of  immortal  life,  of  a  world 
where  all  wrongs  would  be  righted,  and  the 
innocent  at  last  should  come  to  their  own, 
and  Jerusalem  be  crowned  queen  of  all  the 
world.  This  was,  and  is  still,  a  solution  of 
the  problem  from  man's  side,  and  a  truth 
to  which  we  must  cling.  But  it  still  leaves 
God  in  the  shadows,  the  veiled  Being  Whom 
we  cannot  know.  Then  comes  Christ.  He 
comes  bearing  the  form  of  the  Great  Deliverer 
whom  the  prophet  saw.  He  comes  as  a  Man 
of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief.  He 
comes  with  no  pageantry  of  power,  no  robes 
of  royalty,  no  crown  of  gold.  He  comes  as 
a  peasant,  not  a  prince,  with  hands  hard 
with  manual  labour,  a  face  tanned  by  the 
sun,  a  Man  among  men.  And  He  comes 
with  an  amazing  message.  He  says  not  ''I 
am  the  prophet  of  God,  or  the  servant  of 
God,"  but  "I  am  God  Himself.''  ''He 
that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father." 
He  plays  out  the  wonderful  drama  of  the 
perfect  life,  suffering,  striving,  dying  at  last 
in  torture  upon  the  Cross.  He  stamps  on 
the  heart  of  the  world  three  great  memories — 


Lies  and  the  Bible  193 

the  memory  of  His  suffering,  the  memory  of 
His  love,  and  the  memory  of  His  resurrec- 
tion. And  arising  out  of  those  three  one 
that  includes  them  all — the  memory  of  His 
divinity.  The  outstanding  miracle  of  history 
is  His  power  to  make  Himself  the  God  of  the 
world  that  has  grown  up  since  He  died. 

His  was  an  absolutely  revolutionary  doc- 
trine, miles  beyond  the  people  of  His  time, 
outside  the  circle  of  their  ideas,  and  largely 
outside  the  circle  of  ours  to-day.  He  taught 
that  power  was  love,  and  that  love  was  the 
only  power.  He  taught  that  God  Himself 
was  a  servant,  and  was  divine  because  He 
served.  He  overturned  all  earthly  thrones 
and  broke  to  pieces  all  the  crowns  of  gold. 
He  set  up  one  throne  above  the  world,  the 
Cross  of  suffering,  and  made  one  crown  the 
only  crown,  the  crow^n  of  pointed  thorns. 
It  was,  and  is,  a  turning  of  the  world  com- 
pletely upside  dow^n.  And  that  is  why  to 
the  people  of  His  day  He  could  not  make 
His  message  plain,  and  why  all  the  ages  of 
the  past  have  not  made  it  plain  yet. 

Men  could  not  abandon  at  once  their  old 
conceptions   of   what    God   was   Hke.     They 


194 


Lies  ! 


could  only  hold  them  and  Christ  together, 
and  try  and  reconcile  the  two  ideas  of  the 
sultan  on  his  throne  and  the  Saviour  on  the 
Cross,  by  combining  them  ;  and  there  grew 
up  from  the  combination  the  extraordinary 
series  of  doctrines  about  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  The  Church  has  never  been  clear 
about  the  Person  to  whom  the  sacrifice  was 
offered.  All  sorts  of  theories  have  prevailed, 
and  do  prevail  to-day.  Sometimes  the  ran- 
som was  represented  as  paid  to  the  devil, 
sometimes  to  the  Father,  sometimes  to  a 
moral  law  which  demanded  that  the  sinner 
should  be  punished  before  he  was  forgiven, 
and  sometimes  to  some  one  or  something 
unknown.  But  in  every  case  the  doctrines 
leave  one  dizzy  and  unsatisfied.  This  whole 
cycle  of  doctrines  of  the  Atonement  arises 
from  the  struggle  to  reconcile  the  sultanic 
God  of  power  with  the  suffering  God  of  love, 
and  to  hold  them  both  together  as  revela- 
tions of  the  truth.  That  arises  from  the 
failure  to  perceive  the  revolution  that  the 
mind  of  Christ  was  destined  to  work  in  the 
world.  Men  took  Christ,  and  gave  Him  up 
in  heaven  what  He  refused  to  take  on  earth — 


Lies  and  the  Bible  195 

a  kingly  throne,  a  royal  crown,  and  a  white- 
robed  band  of  courtiers  to  sing  His  praises. 

The  Saviour  suffered  and  rose  again 

To  cleanse  and  hallow  the  sons  of  men. 

His  Work  is  ended.    The  Father  waits. 

And  slowly  the  everlasting  gates 

Swing  open  to  let  the  Saviour  in, 

Bearing  the  ransom  of  man  from  sin. 

He  takes  His  seat  at  the  King's  right  hand, 

While  glistering  angels  round  Him  stand. 

Then,  like  the  sound  of  a  thousand  seas 

Their  song  swells  out  as  they  bend  their  knees. 

To  sing  the  praise  of  the  King  who  died. 

The  song  of  the  Saviour  glorified. 

His  suffering  is  represented  as  being 
finished  with,  the  sacrifice  as  complete  and 
ended  on  Calvary.  Christ  was  God,  and 
therefore  Christ  must  be  a  King.  It  is  the 
combination  of  the  old  with  the  startlingly 
new,  and  in  various  forms  that  doctrine 
has  been  preached  and  is  preached  to-day. 
But  it  cannot  be  true.  The  work  of  Christ 
and  the  suffering  of  Christ  cannot  be  ended. 
There  is  no  real  evidence  for,  or  trace  of, 
this  absolutely  omnipotent  King.  The  figure 
that  appears  from  the  pages  of  the  Bible, 


196  Lies ! 

growing  clearer  and  clearer  in  outline  as  the 
darkness  gives  place  to  the  dawn,  is  the  figure 
that  appears  out  of  nature  and  out  of  history, 
the  figure  of  the  Christ  as  the  final  truth, 
revealing  to  us  the  suffering  God  who  rules, 
and  always  has  ruled,  this  world  of  ours, 
striving  to  express  Himself  through  men  and 
things.  When  we  look  on  that  Figure  we 
see  all  that  men  can  see  of  what  God  is.  The 
final  truth  of  the  Bible  is  the  simple  fact  that 
God  is  like  Christ. 

It  is  that  God  revealed  to  us  in  Christ 
crucified,  and  speaking  to  us  in  the  language 
of  Calvary,  that  we  must  have  if  we  are  to 
build  the  perfect  state.  He  speaks  to  us 
not  of  something  done  for  us  long  years  ago, 
but  of  something  to  be  done  in  us  now.  He 
calls  to  us  not  for  passive  obedience  and 
resignation,  but  for  active  loyalty  and  con- 
secrated adventure.  He  calls  to  the  whole 
community  and  to  every  member  of  it  to 
take  up  their  cross  and  follow  Him,  on  to 
the  city  of  God,  the  perfect  state  in  whose 
light  the  meaning  of  this  strange  and  awful 
struggle  becomes  clear.  The  great  sultan  of 
the  world  has  been   dethroned,   and  in   His 


Lies  and  the  Bible  197 


place  there  stands  a  God,  who  rules  because 
He  serves,  who  is  supreme  because  He 
suffers,  who  is  strong  because  He  is  weak. 
The  Bible  tells  the  story  of  how  that  usurper 
was  cast  down,  and  the  True  King  of  Calvary 
took  His  place.  That  King  of  Calvary  must 
be  the  God  of  the  world  that  is  to  be. 


LIES  AND  DRUGS 

It  was  a  common  enough  scene  in  those  days, 
an  advanced  collecting  post  for  wounded  in 
the  Ypres  Salient,  on  the  evening  of  June  15, 
1917.  Twenty  men  all  smashed  up  and 
crammed  together  in  a  little  concrete  shelter 
which  would  have  been  full  with  ten  in  it. 
Outside  the  German  barrage  banging  down 
all  round  us.  The  one  guttering  candle  on 
the  edge  of  a  broken  wire-bed  going  out  every 
five  minutes  when  a  salvo  of  S'g's  from 
Pilkom  Ridge  shook  the  place  to  its  founda- 
tions. A  boy  with  a  badly  shattered  thigh 
in  a  corner  moaning  and  yelling  by  turns  for 
'*  Somefing  to  stop  the  pain."  So  it  had 
been  for  an  hour  or  more.  Between  this 
Black  Hole  of  Calcutta  and  Battalion  H.Q. 
Death  and  Hell  to  go  through.  Hell  inside 
and  hell  out,  and  the  moaning  of  the  boy 
in  the  corner  like  the  moaning  of  a  damned 
soul.  ''  The  pain — the  pain — my  Gawd — the 
pain.     For  Gawd's  sake  gimme  somefing  to 

stop  the  pain.'' 

iq8 


Lies  and  Drugs  199 

There  was  no  morphia.  That  was  the 
horror.  Some  one  must  go  for  it.  I  went. 
I  went  because  the  hell  outside  was  less 
awful  than  the  hell  in.  I  didn't  go  to  do  an 
heroic  deed  or  perform  a  Christian  service ; 
I  went  because  I  couldn't  bear  that  moaning 
any  longer.  I  ran,  and  as  I  ran,  and  cowered 
down  in  shell-holes  waiting  for  a  chance  to 
run  again,  I  thought — thought  like  light- 
ning— whole  trains  of  thought  came  tearing 
through  my  mind  like  non-stop  expresses 
to  God  knows  where.  I  thought :  Poor 
devil,  I  couldn't  have  stood  that  a  minute 
longer.  I  wasn't  doing  any  good  either.  If 
I  get  through  and  bring  the  morphia  back, 
it  will  be  like  bringing  back  heaven  to  him. 
That  is  the  only  heaven  he  wants  just  now, 
dead-drunk  sleep.  If  I  bring  it  back,  I 
will  be  to  him  a  saviour  from  hell.  I'd  like 
that.  It's  worth  while.  I'm  glad  I  thought 
of  that.  I  can't  pretend  that  it  was  that 
I  came  for.  It  wasn't.  Still  I'm  glad.  He 
wants  to  forget,  to  forget  and  sleep.  Poor 
old  chap.  Heaven  in  a  morphia  pill.  Funny 
things  drugs  are.  It's  mysterious  their  power. 
Fancy   putting   Heaven   in   a   pill-box,    and 


200  Lies  I 

keeping  it  by  your  bedside.  Beastly  danger- 
ous. How  can  men  resist  when  things  get 
bad  beyond  bearing.  It  is  so  simple,  so 
easy,  so  damnably  easy.  Raving  mad  one 
minute,  swallow  a  pill,  and  then  comes  the 
delicious  fading  death  of  all  sensation — when 
aches  and  pains  seem  far  away  and  only 
Peace  seems  real,  and  then  sleep.  How  do 
men  resist,  and  women  ?  Don't  we  all  want 
to  forget  ?  I  came  out  here  to  forget.  I 
came  out  because  I  was  too  much  of  a 
coward  to  stand  that  moaning  any  longer. 
This  mad  business  is  a  drug  to  me.  I 
wanted  to  forget.  All  men  want  to  more  or 
less.     Drugs — the  world  is  full  of  Drugs. 

Christ  wouldn't  have  His.  Turned  His 
head  away.  He  hated  it.  I  can  understand 
that  too.  There  is  something  disgraceful 
about  drugs.  They  are  shameful.  It's  a 
kind  of  running  away.  It  means  surrender. 
It's  so  beastly  easy.  There  is  the  other 
instinct.  The  instinct  to  defy  the  Devil. 
The  instinct  to  live,  to  think,  to  see  it 
through,  however  much  it  costs.  That  is 
the  Life  force,  I  suppose.  Come  to  think  of 
it — that's  God.     God  is  Life,  and  Drugs  are 


Lies  and  Drugs  201 


death,  and  it's  a  fight  between  the  two.  All 
life  is  a  matter  of  Life  and  Death.  Death 
sleep — forgetting — drugs — they  are  the  Devil, 
the  very  Devil — the  great  adversary  of  God. 
*'  The  last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed  is 
death.''  I  never  thought  of  that  before. 
That  is  the  whole  meaning  of  Science  and 
History — a  scrap  between  God  and  the 
Devil.  The  Spirit  of  Life  and  the  Spirit  of 
Death.  The  struggle  for  existence.  God 
is  Life — God  is  Life  in  plants,  animals,  and 
men.  He  has  to  struggle  for  existence  in 
them  all,  but  it  is  harder  the  higher  He  goes, 
and  hardest  in  man.  He  is  all-powerful  in 
the  end.  He  gets  there.  You  can't  drug 
God.  You  couldn't  drug  Christ.  He  wouldn't 
have  it.  In  Him  was  Life.  I  understand. 
It's  fatal  to  forget  when  you  ought  to  remem- 
ber— it's  wrong  to  run  when  you  ought  to 
stand.  Drugs  are  God's  mercy,  a  last  resort. 
You  must  not  presume  on  it  or  it  will  turn  to 
poison.  We  must  not  forget.  It's  suicide. 
I  must  not  forget. 

I  suppose  that  is  the  meaning  of  the 
Sacrament.  Do  this  in  Remembrance  of 
Me — Eat,  Drink,  and  Remember.     God  calls 


202  Lies  I 

us  to  drink  and  Remember — Satan  to  drink 
and  forget.  God  bids  us  drink  and  remember 
the  Cross — His  Burden  of  Love  that  a  man 
should  share — share  with  God  and  not  shirk. 
Drugs  are  the  Sacraments  of  Satan,  the  means 
of  damnation.  You  must  take  up  the  Cross 
or  die.  You  cannot  stand  outside  the  struggle 
for  existence  and  live.  It's  an  eternal  law, 
and  the  Cross  is  the  revelation  of  what  it 
means  to  God,  and  ought  to  mean  to  us. 

How  clear  it  all  is.  All  narcotics  are  the 
devil.  All  narcotics.  What  a  lot  there  are 
in  the  world  when  you  come  to  think  of  it. 
It  isn't  only  drink — though  that  is  a  big 
drug.  Half  the  civilised  world  is  doped  with 
drink.  The  Czar  of  Russia  has  ruled  for 
centuries  by  the  power  of  Vodka,  and  even 
Britain  sleeps  on  beer.  Drink  is  a  great 
drug.  Then  lust — the  service  of  the  flesh. 
The  everlasting  pleasure  hunt.  Luxury.  All 
drugs, — all  putting  the  hfe  of  the  soul  to 
sleep — calling  men  to  forget  their  manhood. 
They  all  act  in  the  same  way.  There  is  the 
period  of  Peace  when  pain  and  worry  seem 
to  fade  away ;  then  the  awakening  and  the 
pain  again — either  that  or  death.     Just  hke 


Lies  and  Drugs  203 

morphia.  There  is  the  craving  too  for 
more — the  craving  that  grows  and  will  not 
be  satisfied.  That  is  the  way  with  lust.  It 
sweeps  you  up  to  heaven — no  need  for  effort, 
no  need  for  struggle  ;  you  are  in  the  world 
and  out  of  it — and  heaven  is  a  woman's 
arms  into  which  you  sink  and  sleep.  But 
there  comes  the  awakening.  What's  that  in 
Browning's  "  Pippa  Passes  "  ?  I  always  re- 
member that.  *'  Wipe  off  that  paint.  I 
hate  you !  "  It  does  not  last.  It  lifts  you 
up  to  heaven,  and  bumps  you  back  again 
to  hell. 

That's  the  way  with  pleasure-hunting 
too.  Does  for  a  while,  but  won't  last.  You 
get  fed-up — bored.  A  bed  of  roses  is  mostly 
thorns,  and  too  many  lilies  have  a  sickly 
smeU.  It's  the  same  with  business,  work, 
position-hunting,  and  ambition.  They  have 
no  bottom  and  no  top.  You  wake  up  and 
find  that  you  have  been  breaking  your  neck 
with  hurry  to  get  nowhere  in  particular. 
Energy  without  an  eternal  object  is  a  drug 
that  puts  one's  real  self  to  sleep. 

Furious  action  is  a  strong  drug.  It 
drowns  thought.     This  business  would  drug 


204  Lies  I 

me  if  rd  let  it.  But  I  won't.  Tm  a  eoward, 
but  I  hate  being  a  coward.  I  hate  drugs. 
I  want  to  Uve.  I  want  to  Uve,  and  think, 
and  face  things  out.  I  won't  go  to  sleep. 
God,  my  God,  I  want  to  live  with  you — give 
me  strength.  I  want  to  turn  my  head  away. 
There  is  this  craving  to  forget,  to  sleep.  It 
gets  you  all  roads.  There  is  only  one  way 
to  meet  it.  God — God  growing  in  one's 
insides — God  struggling  for  existence  in  my 
mind,  and  refusing  to  be  drugged.  Christ 
in  me  the  hope  of  glory.  The  only  one. 
That's  it — Rehgion — the  passion  for  God. 
A  man  must  have  it.  The  world  must  have 
it,  or  die — Religion. 

But  men  can  turn  religion  into  a  narcotic 
too.  They  have  done  it.  A  lot  of  religion 
is  just  opium — going  to  church  and  singing 
sentimental  hymns,  and  listening  to  beautiful 
sermons,  praying  finely-worded  prayers.  It's 
opium.  It  lifts  you  up  to  heaven  on  Sunday 
and  drops  you  down  on  a  cold  leg  of  mutton 
on  Monday. 

A  lot  of  what  passes  for  religion  is  just 
Fatalism.  What  'as  to  be,  'as  to  be — it's 
Gawd's    will.     Fold    your    hands    and    close 


Lies  and  Drugs  205 

your  eyes  and  rest.  God  is  just  the  cause 
of  everything.  He  is  the  unknown  and  un- 
knowable, inscrutable  Supreme  Being  whose 
will  is  Fate.  He  is  the  beginning  and  the 
end — the  Almighty.  He  maps  out  one's  life, 
and  sends  peace,  war,  health  and  disease, 
poverty  or  wealth,  joy  or  sorrow  as  He  wills 

Choose  Thou  my  friend  for  me, 

My  sickness  or  my  health. 
Choose  Thou  my  cares  for  me. 

My  poverty  or  wealth. 

Why  struggle — why  strive — why  seek  to 
alter  things  ?  What  is  to  be,  is  to  be.  Thy 
will  be  done.  Safe  in  the  arms  of  Jesus. 
Peace,  perfect  peace.  Good  night — sleep, 
sweet  sleep.  A  lot  of  religion  is  just  that, 
and  that  is  the  devil — the  very  devil.  That's 
queer,  isn't  it  ?  It's  queer  that  people  should 
mix  up  Life  and  Death — God  and  the  Devil. 
Yet  I  suppose  that's  just  it.  The  Devil  is 
the  great  liar — the  final  lie — and  he  must  live 
on  Truth.     He  must  imitate  God  or  perish.      . 

Anyhow,  this  drug  religion  is  the  devil. 
That's  settled.  It's  a  wrong  idea  of  God. 
It's   a   lie — an   idol.     It's    sacrilege    on    the 


2o6  Lies  I 

Sacrament.  It  turns  the  Chalice  into  a 
hypodermic  squirt.  It  turns  the  Cup  of 
Remembrance  into  an  opium  pipe.  It  is 
loathsome,  hke  all  drugs.  God  is  not  the 
unknowable  and  inscrutable  Fate  that  does 
good  and  evil  alike  to  serve  His  ends.  God 
is  this  force  of  life  and  love  and  thought  and 
creative  energy  that  wrestles  with  death  in 
all  the  world,  and  wrestles  with  it  in  me. 
Faith  in  that,  love  of  that,  communion  with 
that,  is  religion.  Real  reUgion  is  not  a 
drug  ;  it's  a  stimulant.  It  is  not  opium  ;  it 
is  rum — the  only  real  rum  there  is.  The 
world  wants  a  real  rum  ration.  We  must 
not  forget.  We  must  not  sleep.  Drugs 
won't  do.  We  must  have  Life.  We  must 
not  forget.  If  we  ever  do,  it  will  come  again. 
That  is  certain.  Can  we  forget  it  ?  We  have 
forgotten  before.  There  are  so  many  drugs. 
It  will  come  back  again,  the  old  life.  Satan 
will  call  us  by  every  lie  he  knows  to  forget. 
I  wonder  will  the  people  fall  asleep  again  ? 
Shall  we  go  back  to  the  old  ways — the  old 
struggle  for  narcotics  to  put  our  souls  to 
sleep  ?  Shall  we  forget  ?  Shall  we  drug  our- 
selves  and  fall  asleep,   and  allow  it   all  to 


Lies  and  Drugs  207 

fester   underneath   the   skin   of  Hfe   until  it 
bursts   again   into   an   open   bleeding  sore — 
like  this  ?     God  forbid  !     It  must  not  be.     It 
shall  not  be.     Tve  done  with  drugs.     I  want 
to  live.     God — Great  God  of  Life — teach  me 
to   remember  ;     teach   us   to   remember — we 
must  not  forget. 

•  ••••• 

It's  two  years  or  more  since  I  thought 
those  thoughts,  but  time  has  not  made  them 
any  less  vivid  in  my  mind.  I  am  thinking 
again  now.  It  is  very  peaceful.  There  is  a 
bowl  of  roses  on  my  study  table.  My  child 
is  playing  on  the  patch  of  garden  outside. 
I  can  hear  my  wife  calling  him,  and  his 
gleeful  httle  voice  chuckling  as  he  runs  away 
to  hide.  I  have  just  had  tea.  It  is  peace. 
I  can  feel  the  old  life  creeping  round  me, 
calling  me.  The  past  seems  like  an  im- 
possible dream — a  nightmare.  Life  is  just 
the  same.  I  am  back  in  July  1914.  There 
is  the  daily  paper  on  my  table,  with  its 
account  of  the  daily  strike.  In  its  pages  the 
poor  blame  the  idle  rich,  and  the  rich  blame 
the  idle  poor,  and  everybody  blames  Lloyd 
George.     Everybody  says  that   the   country 


2o8  Lies  I 

is  going  to  ruin,  and  nobody  believes  it. 
Everybody  says  that  the  Peace  is  a  patched- 
up  Peace,  and  everybody  beheves  that  it  is 
as  safe  as  the  Bank  of  England,  and  that  of 
course  is  a  great  deal  safer  than  God.  The 
great  British  Democracy  is  falling  back  into 
its  old  groove.  The  War  is  over.  We  are 
very  tired  and  very  irritable,  and  we  want 
to  get  back  to  business  as  usual,  beer  as 
usual,  pleasure  as  usual,  sleep  as  usual,  and 
wake  up  in  hell  as  usual.  You  can  see  it 
coming.  The  great  mass  of  people  are  calling 
out  for  the  common  drugs — women,  beer, 
and  business,  and  the  social  reformers  are 
drinking  deep  of  the  drug  of  furious  action 
based  on  no  principle  and  no  purpose.  The 
one  side  want  to  change  nothing,  and  the 
other  to  change  everything,  but  God  alone 
knows  what  they  want  to  change  it  for. 
Every  one  is  really  clamouring  for  more 
drugs  to  dope  themselves  with.  The  memory 
of  the  dreadful  years  is  growing  dim.  We 
are  falling  back  on  the  old  lies.  Mutual 
distrust  and  suspicion,  class-war  fostered 
and  fomented  from  abroad,  selfish  greed  and 
personal  ambition  for  power,  are  putting  all 


Lies  and  Drugs  209 

industry  more  and  more  on  a  war  basis. 
Talk  about  the  great  moral  ideals  for  which 
we  fought  is  hackneyed  now,  and  plati- 
tudinous. Everybody  tends  to  take  all  that 
for  granted,  which  means  that  they  do  not 
take  it  at  all. 

Democracy — that  great  word  which  was 
worth  a  war  to  keep  in  the  dictionary — is 
being  degraded  as  usual  into  a  name  for  free 
drug  stores,  free  pleasure,  free  leisure,  free 
comfort,  free  everything.  Get  all  and  pay 
nothing.  Why  doesn't  the  Government  do 
it? 

Democracy,  which  ought  to  be  a  trumpet 
call,  is  being  taken  as  a  lullaby.  We  want  to 
sleep  again.  If  we  do,  it  can  have  but  one 
end — the  death  of  Democracy — a  painful 
death  in  the  flames  of  a  furnace  heated 
seven  times  hotter  than  1914.  Democracy 
is  a  national  vocation.  It  is  the  call  of  God 
to  develop  every  scrap  of  human  material 
to  the  highest  possible  perfection.  "  If  any- 
thing ever  profoundly  surprised  me,''  says 
Mazzini,  speaking  of  Democracy,  ''it  is  that 
so  many  persons  have  hitherto  been  blind 
to  the  eminently  religious  character  of  the 


210  Lies ! 

movement."  Democracy  cannot  exist  in 
any  real  sense  apart  from  true  religion.  The 
whole  essence  of  it  is  the  enormous  weight 
of  responsibility  it  throws  upon  the  average 
man.  It  is,  as  Carlyle  said,  "  the  huge  in- 
evitable product  of  the  destinies,''  because 
it  is  the  inevitable  result  of  man's  growth, 
his  growth  towards  complete  manhood,  that 
is,  towards  complete  responsibility  for  his 
actions.  The  true  democrat  is  the  man 
who  claims  for  himself  and  for  all  his  fellows 
the  right  to  bear  responsibility.  But  the 
man  who  claims  the  burden  of  responsibility 
without  training  himself  to  bear  it  is  not 
a  democrat  but  a  fool.  Corruptio  optimi 
pessima.  The  best  thing  is  the  worst  thing 
if  the  thing  goes  bad.  The  corruption  of 
Democracy  is  national  damnation,  and  a 
Democracy  must  go  bad  unless  Demos  has 
a  God — a  real  living  God — who  counts  in 
the  public  life.  We  must  have  God ;  we 
must  have  a  red  religion  which  burns  and 
blazes  and  calls  men — calls  them  to  service, 
renunciation,  and  sacrifice. 

When  men  have  seen  the  true  vision  of  God 
there  will  be  on  earth  a  true  Democracy. 


Lies  and  Drugs  211 

The  ancient  conception  of  God  as  an  absolute 
monarch  sitting  on  a  throne,  crowned  with 
a  jewelled  crown,  with  the  sceptre  in  His 
hand,  could  not  be  the  God  of  Democracy. 
We  do  not  honour  kings  as  kings  any  more. 
We  cannot  believe  any  longer  that  there 
can  be  such  a  thing  as  the  divine  right  to 
rule  ;  we  can  only  recognise  the  divine  right 
to  serve.  Christ  has  so  far  come  into  His 
own  that  He  has  cast  down  from  their 
thrones  all  kings  and  princes,  except  those 
who  have  been  content  to  resign  all  pretence 
to  absolute  power  and  have  taken  upon 
themselves  the  form  of  a  servant,  founding 
their  kingdoms  on  their  peoples'  gratitude 
and  respect  for  honest  service  done. 

It  has  been  a  long  time  coming,  and  it  is 
not  yet  fully  come,  but  the  doom  of  all 
Kaisers,  Czars,  snobs,  and  autocrats  is  recog- 
nised as  inevitable,  and  with  them  must  go 
the  old  God.  The  Sultan  of  the  universe 
has  been  slain.  Most  of  the  sorrows  of  the 
present  time  are  caused  by  the  interregnum. 
The  old  God  is  dead,  and  the  new  one  has 
not  yet  been  crowned.  The  king  is  dead, 
but  the  peoples  have  not  shouted  God  save 


212  Lies ! 

the  king.  But  the  coronation  day  is  drawing 
near,  when  Christ  shall  be  crowned  with  His 
crown  of  thorns,  and  throned  once  more 
upon  His  cross,  and  men  will  draw  near  to 
worship  the  Suffering  Lover  of  the  human 
race  Who  is  their  real  God. 

When  He  shall  appear  we  shall  be  like 
Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is.  Every 
man  then  will  be  proud  to  call  himself  a 
minister — a  servant  of  the  people,  and  proud 
to  suffer  and  to  labour  for  the  human  race, 
because  he  will  have  seen  Jesus  washing 
weary  pilgrims'  feet. 

That  passion  for  service  in  the  name  of 
Christ  is  the  only  motive  which  can  be  made 
powerful  enough  to  get  the  world's  work 
done  without  compulsion,  powerful  enough 
to  keep  us  working  at  our  hardest,  dealing 
honestly  with  our  neighbour,  denying  our- 
selves the  profits  of  corruption,  scheming, 
and  lying  ;  powerful  enough  to  ensure  the 
universal  rule  of  Right  over  Might,  and  of 
Justice  over  Greed.  We  shall  not  dare  to 
wake  unless  He  wakes  us  ;  we  cannot  come 
to  ourselves  unless  we  come  through  Him. 
If   Democracy  is   to   come,   we  must   throw 


Lies  and  Drugs  213 

aside  our  false  gods  and  come  to  Him  and 
let  Him  come  to  us.  We  are  bound  to  forget 
unless  we  drink  the  Cup  of  Remembrance 
and  learn  to  worship  the  Suffering  Servant 
of  the  human  race — to  love  Him  with  our 
whole  heart,  mind  and  soul,  and  follow  Him 
at  all  costs.  He  stands  now  at  a  thousand 
altars  and  pleads  with  us  by  the  sorrow  of 
our  suffering  world,  by  the  piles  of  broken 
bodies  and  ruins  of  lost  homes,  by  the  barren 
years  of  widows  and  the  cry  of  fatherless 
children,  by  all  the  dreary  waste  of  War.  He 
pleads  with  us  "To  drink  and  remember " 
what  it  means  to  Him.  He  stands  there  with 
the  Cup  of  Remembrance  in  His  hands.  Are 
we  able  to  drink  of  the  cup  that  He  drinks 
of,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  that 
He  is  baptized  with  ?  We  are  able — we  must 
be  able  or  perish.     Human  nature  cries  : 

Let  me  forget !   Let  me  forget ! 
I  am  weary  of  remembrance. 
And  my  face  is  ever  wet 
With  the  tears  of  my  remembrance, 
With  the  tears  and  bloody  sweat. 
Let  me  forget. 


214  Li^s  I 

God  answers : 

If  ye  forget — if  ye  forget, 

Then  your  children  must  remember. 

And  their  face  be  ever  wet 

With  the  tears  of  their  remembrance. 

With  the  tears  and  bloody  sweat, 

If  ye  forget. 


LIES  AND  THE  LIFE  ETERNAL 

If  I  am  a  monkey  I  am  a  dismally  dis- 
contented monkey.  Monkeys  want  but  little 
here  below,  nor  want  that  little  long  ;  I  want 
a  lot  and  want  it  all  for  ever.  Of  course, 
mind  you,  I  never  had  a  heart-to-heart  talk 
with  the  inmates  of  the  Zoo,  and  they  may 
have  aspirations,  dreams,  and  fond  desires 
that  I  know  nothing  of,  but  if  they  have 
these  do  not  seem  to  trouble  them.  They 
seem  to  be  content.  Fm  not.  I  sometimes 
meet  a  man  who  is,  or  seems  to  be,  and  he  is 
either  a  fool  or  else  he  is  fat  and  forty,  and 
even  then  Fm  not  sure  about  him.  I  suspect 
even  him  of  having  his  bad  days  when  this 
world  seems  too  small,  and  life  too  narrow, 
when  his  soul  hears  the  call  of  the  eternal, 
and  he  takes  a  third  whiskey  and  soda. 

Men  are  queer  things.  You  never  know, 
you  know.  A  pawnbroker  may  be  a  secret 
poet,  and  a  pork  butcher,  as  he  wends  his 
way  to  kill  his  daily  pigs,  may  be  troubled 

215 


2i6  Lies  I 

by  the  rustling  of  a  thousand  angels'  wings  ; 
even  as  he  sharpens  his  knife  to  do  the  dirty 
deed  he  may  be  feehng  what  he  cannot  say. 

I  cannot  chain  my  soul,  it  will  not  rest 
In  its  clay  prison  ;  this  most  narrow  sphere, 
It  has  strange  powers,  and  feehngs,  and  desires. 
Which  I  cannot  account  for  or  explain 
But  which  I  stifle  not,  being  bound  to  trust 
All  feehngs  equally — to  hear  all  sides  : 
Yet  I  cannot  indulge  them,  and  they  live 
Referring  to  some  state  or  hfe  unknown.  .  .  . 

I  read  of  a  pork  butcher  once  who  went  as 
usual  to  slay  his  pigs,  but  suddenly  decided 
to  cut  his  own  throat  instead.  The  jury  said 
he  was  mad,  of  course,  and  he  may  have  been  ; 
but  he  was  a  mad  man  not  a  mad  monkey. 
There  is  no  record  of  suicide  among  chim- 
panzees. Suicide  is  a  sin,  perhaps  it  is  the 
greatest  of  all  sins,  but  it  is  for  that  very 
reason  human.  It  is  a  fall,  but  it  is  always 
a  fall  of  man.  It  is  a  fall  upstairs  from  the 
animal,  and  down  from  the  divine.  Suicide 
is  the  tragic  climax  of  our  peculiarly  human 
discontent.  The  hall-mark  of  humanity  is 
discontent.  This  world  is  not  enough  to 
satisfy  a  full-grown  man.     The  man  who  was 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  217 

asked  what  he  would  do  if  he  had  as  much 
beer  as  he  Hked  and  answered,  ''  There  isn't 
as  much/'  may  not  have  been  a  "  Pussy- 
foot/' but  he  was  a  person,  a  fully  human 
person,  with  a  human  thirst,  and  was  speaking 
literal  truth. 

Even  the  longest  river 
Winds  somewhere  safe  to  sea, 

and  even  the  longest  drinker  lays  down  the 
pot  at  last,,  and  if  he  be  a  fully  human 
drinker,  lays  it  down  with  his  desire  still 
imsatisfied  and  his  thirst  unquenched.  There 
isn't  as  much  beer  or  anything  else  as  is 
needed  to  satisfy  a  human  soul.  Man  can- 
not live  by  beer  alone,  but  by  every  word  of 
wonder  that  comes  from  the  mouth  of  God. 
Beer  is  just  a  substitute  for  the  grace  of  God. 
There  are  millions  of  other  cheap  substitutes, 
and  they  are  none  of  them  satisfactory.  They 
don't  last.  Nothing  in  this  world  lasts.  This 
world's  goods  are  made  to  sell,  but  they  don't 
wear.  Every  one  of  them  is  stamped  with 
the  sign  of  death. 

Twere  heaven  enough  to  fill  my  heart 
If  only  one  would  stay, 


2i8  Lies  I 

Just  one  of  all  the  million  joys 

God  gives  to  take  away. 
If  I  could  catch  one  golden  dawn. 

The  splendour  of  one  star. 
The  silver  glint  of  yon  bird's  wing 

That  flashes  from  afar  ; 
If  I  could  take  the  least  of  things 

That  make  me  catch  my  breath 
To  gasp  with  wonder  at  God's  world 

And  hold  it  back  from  death, 
It  were  enough  ;  but  death  forbids. 

The  sunset  flames  to  fade. 
The  velvet  petals  of  this  rose 

Fall  withered — brown — decayed. 
O  death,  where  is  thy  victory  ? 

O  grave,  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
Thy  victory  is  everywhere, 

Thy  sting's  in  everything. 

If  the  human  soul  lingers  over-long  by  any 
joy  this  world  supplies,  Death  comes  like  a 
policeman  and  bids  the  soul  move  on.  It's 
all  very  well  saying  that  a  thing  of  beauty 
is  a  joy  for  ever,  but  it  isn't.  Either  the 
thing  outlas«ts  the  joy  or  the  joy  outlasts  the 
thing.  Either  the  thing  outlasts  the  joy, 
and  you  get,  in  popular,  which  is  generally 
the  most  expressive,  language,  ''  fed  up  to  the 
back  teeth  with  the  beastly  thing,''  or  else 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  219 


the  joy  outlasts  the  thing  and  you  lose  it. 
You  cannot  keep  the  joy  and  the  thing  for 
ever.  If  you  could  you  would  have  found  a 
short  cut  to  heaven,  and  there  are  not  any 
short  cuts  to  heaven — they  all  lead  down  to 
hell,  the  land  of  the  ''  might-have-been.'' 

This  world  cannot  finally  satisfy  a  man. 
There  is  deep-seated  in  the  make-up  of  the 
ordinary  man  a  craving  for  flowers  that  do 
not  fade  and  pleasures  that  do  not  pass  away. 
He  stands  before  God  like  Oliver  Twist  and 
asks  for  more — and  more — and  more. 

His  selfishness  is  satiated  not, 

It  wears  him  Hke  a  flame  ; 
His  hunger  for  all  pleasure, 

Howe'er  minute,  is  pain. 

It  is  worse  than  useless  railing  at  this  dis- 
content, and  calling  it  hard  names — it  is 
the  very  essence  of  humanity,  and  behind  it 
there  is  the  great  life  force  that  we  call  God. 
It  grows  with  our  growth,  grows  with  the 
growth  of  our  peculiarly  human  powers  of 
memory,  reason,  and  imagination.  The  more 
completely  man  is  man,   the  more  the  fire 

bums    within    his    soul.     The    only    way    to 
8* 


220  Lies  I 

quench  the  fire  would  be  to  stunt  our  growth, 
and  you  can  only  do  that  for  a  time.  Sooner 
or  later  the  force  of  life  will  break  your  little 
barriers  down  and  make  an  outlet  for  itself. 
You  cannot  fight  against  God. 

It  is  this  driving  discontent  which  sooner 
or  later  is  bound  to  tear  all  false  and  super- 
ficial civilisations  into  pieces.  The  essence 
of  a  false  and  superficial  civilisation  is  its 
attempt  to  find  complete  satisfaction  in  the 
present,  to  create  an  environment  which  will 
render  men  content  here  and  now.  It  is  an 
effort  to  satisfy  men  with  monkey  nuts,  and 
to  organise  humanity  on  the  monkey  plane. 
It  won't  work.  It  can't  work.  There  is 
that  in  man  which  will  not  be  satisfied  with 
the  things  this  world  can  give.  The  effort 
leads  inevitably  to  a  desperate  scramble. 
Life  becomes  a  struggle  of  pigs  round  a 
trough,  a  terrible  struggle  because  the  pigs 
are  eternally  hungry  pigs  with  human  brains. 
The  more  they  have  the  more  they  want, 
and  they  can  devise  terrible  methods  of 
getting  what  they  want.  If  their  hunger  has 
no  food  but  that  which  this  world  gives,  and 
they  have  no  vision  of  another,   when  the 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  221 

inevitable  happens  and  common  pleasures 
start  to  pall,  men  turn  downwards  for  satis- 
faction, they  invent  unnatural  and  unmen- 
tionable pleasures.  Strange  and  obscene 
vices  become  common.  Men  driven  mad  by 
their  eternal  hunger  go  seeking  satisfaction 
into  filthy  places,  and  disease  attacks  the 
peoples  from  within.  Before  the  disease  has 
time  to  run  its  course  men  turn  and  rend  the 
sham  to  pieces,  and  return  to  naked  barbarism 
to  try  and  build  again. 

It  is  when  you  have  to  a  great  extent 
succeeded  in  organising  monkeydom,  when 
you  have  made  pleasure  cheap  to  most  men, 
when  food,  and  wine,  and  women  have 
become  easy  of  access  to  all  or  to  the  great 
majority — and  only  the  small  minority 
remain  unfed — the  minority  of  the  very 
weak  that  must  remain  unfed  even  in  the 
most  perfect  of  organised  monkeydoms — ^it  is 
in  the  times  of  our  wealth  as  they  seem  to  be, 
that  we  must  expect  squalls.  When  men 
have  tasted  this  world's  pleasures  and  found 
them  sweet  upon  their  tongues  but  bitter  in 
their  bellies,  they  will  be  most  ready  to  tear 
their  world  in  pieces  because  their  souls  are 


222  Lies  I 

still  unsatisfied.  Then  it  is  that  there  comes 
down  on  men  the  cloud  of  pessimism,  the 
great  depression,  that  heralds  suicide  on  a 
large  scale.  The  great  discontent  gathers 
force  behind  the  barriers  of  law  and  order,  it 
frets  like  a  sea  against  the  rocks,  and  then  on 
a  sudden,  as  it  seems  to  us,  it  breaks  through 
and  rolls  out  into  war  or  bloody  revolution, 
tearing,  crushing,  rending  its  own  creations 
in  disgust  at  their  futility,  and  leaping  over 
the  feeble  barriers  of  law  with  a  savage  joy 
in  its  own  power. 

This  is  what  we  have  just  been  through. 
The  divine  discontent  found  no  outlet  in 
the  highly  organised  monkeydom  of  Prussia. 
You  had  the  outbreak  of  vice  and  mad 
luxury  and  moral  depravity — and  then  the 
inevitable  surging  out  of  the  awful  sea  that 
swept  the  world  into  its  waves — when  the 
craving  for  a  place  in  the  sun  followed  the 
inevitable  law  of  its  growth,  apart  from  God, 
and  became  a  perverted  craving  for  every 
place  under  the  sun. 

Had  the  war  been  averted  by  artificial 
means  the  force  would  have  found  its  outlet 
in     some     other     way,     probably     through 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  223 

revolution.  But  it  was  inevitable  that  it  should 
find  an  outlet,  and  it  always  will  be  inevitable. 
What  has  been  the  liistory  of  the  past  must 
be  the  history  of  the  future — there  must 
always  be  these  outbreaks  of  barbarism, 
unless  the  nations  find  their  God  and  grow 
up  to  the  vision  of  eternal  life.  The  hunger 
must  be  fed.  This  law  is  a  law  of  the  human 
spirit  as  fixed  and  firm  in  its  operation,  as 
universal  and  as  inevitable  as  the  law  of 
gravity,  and,  indeed,  one  with  it,  as  all  hfe  is 
one.  If  this  law  were  to  cease  from  operation 
then  the  stars  would  falter  in  their  courses, 
and  the  hills  would  crumble  into  dust, 
because  God  Himself  would  be  dead. 

These  periodic  outbreaks  of  public  lunacy 
are  just  the  operation  in  the  multitude  of 
a  law  which  we  can  observe  every  day  in 
operation  in  individuals.  It  is  called  by  the 
psychologists  in  their  peculiar  jargon  "  the 
law  of  the  buried  complex.''  A  complex  is  a 
group  of  hopes  and  fears,  of  aspirations  and 
desires  centred  round  one  idea  in  a  human 
mind.  A  buried  complex  is  a  group  of  hopes 
and  fears,  aspirations  and  desires  which  find 
no  outlet  in  Hfe — but  remain  buried  within. 


224  Lies ! 

A  great  deal  of  the  irritability,  malice,  envy, 
bad  temper,  vice  and  cruelty,  and  the  un- 
accountable outbursts  of  passionate  anger  in 
normally  quiet  people  is  due  to  the  poison  of 
a  buried  complex.  Have  you  got  a  maiden 
aunt  who  amazes  you  sometimes  with  a 
bitter  speech  or  cruel  action  ?  Do  you  find 
malice  and  bitterness  coming  out  under  her 
normal  gentleness  ?  Be  very  tender  to  your 
maiden  aunt.  You  see  the  complex  of  sex — 
the  longing  for  human  love  and  motherhood 
has  been  buried  in  her,  and  her  spirit  is 
poisoned  by  it.  There  are  glorious  excep- 
tions to  this  law  of  maiden  aunts,  but  they 
will  be  generally  due  to  the  complex  having 
found  some  other  outlet.  Sex  is  a  very 
common  buried  complex  and  a  very  terrible 
one,  but  it  is  not  the  only  one.  An  artist 
may,  under  force  of  circumstances,  become 
a  bricklayer  and  beat  his  wife  because  he 
can't  paint  pictures.  An  explorer  may  drift 
into  an  office,  and  while  his  spirit  seeks  to 
walk  in  unknown  forests  amid  strange  scenes, 
his  body  may  be  fastened  to  a  stool,  he  may 
become  an  anarchist.  A  man  with  a  buried 
complex  is  a  square  peg  in  a  round  hole.    And 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  225 

that  is  what  all  humanity  is  if  you  try  to  fit 
it  into  a  material  world.  Men  develop  an 
extraordinary  ferocity  under  the  pressure  of 
this  unnatural  attempt,  and  to  make  it  on  a 
large  scale  is  to  court  stupendous  disaster. 
The  inevitable  outcome  of  universal  material- 
ism would  be  universal  lunacy.  Of  course 
under  God  the  one  is  as  impossible  as  the 
other. 

But  this  post-war  world  of  ours  is  much 
more  seriously  threatened  by  disaster  due  to 
the  operation  of  this  law  than  its  leaders 
either  recognise  or  are  willing  to  acknowledge 
to  themselves.  We  are  in  earnest,  more  or 
less,  about  securing  what  we  call  better 
conditions  for  everybody.  That  is,  we  are 
as  much  in  earnest  as  our  intense  preoccupa- 
tion with  our  own  monkey  nuts  will  allow  us 
time  to  be.  We  find  that  our  own  pleasure  is 
spoiled  by  the  clamour  of  those  without  as 
many  nuts  as  ourselves,  and  we  want  to  get 
plenty  all  round,  and  are  more  or  less  in 
earnest  about  it. 

We  want  a  new  world,  better  houses,  more 
wages,  more  leisure,  and  more  pleasure  for 
everybody.     All  this  is  very  good,  provided 


226  Lies  I 

we  recognise  fully  that  all  these  things  are 
the  foundations  of  a  proper  human  life,  but 
are  not  and  cannot  be  the  life  itself.  If  we 
fail  to  recognise  that — if  we  make  these  things 
ends  in  themselves  and  not  means  to  an  end, 
then  we  are  building  on  sand,  and  not  merely 
building  on  sand  but  storing  up  for  ourselves 
the  storm  and  the  flood  that  sooner  or  later 
will  overwhelm  all  our  building,  leaving  only- 
ruins  to  mark  where  it  has  been.  If  we  fail 
to  recognise  the  hunger  for  the  eternal  and  to 
feed  it  with  its  proper  food,  we  shall  have 
another  hundred  years  of  futihty  that  will 
end  in  another  hell. 

Our  present-day  politics  still  fail  to 
recognise  this  craving  for  the  eternal  as  a 
factor  in  the  situation,  and  still  seek  to 
satisfy  it  with  monkey  nuts.  Our  politicians 
still  encourage  us  to  reckon  wealth  in  wages, 
and  prosperity  in  pounds  and  pence.  It  is 
true  that  they  teach  us  to  beheve  in  Educa- 
tion. There  is  a  strong  popular  demand  for 
Education.  It  is  the  popular  substitute  for 
Religion.  But  in  this  very  demand,  unless 
the  fact  of  man's  eternal  hunger  is  clearly 
recognised,  lies  the  greatest  danger  of  all. 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  227 

We  have  seen  the  hunger  for  the  eternal  is 
pecuUarly  human,  and  grows  with  the  growth 
of  our  pecuharly  human  powers  of  memory, 
reason,  and  imagination.  Now  it  is  these 
very  powers  that  education  develops.  All 
education  tends  to  strengthen  in  us  the 
powers  of  memory,  reason,  and  imagination, 
and  therefore  strengthens  the  craving  in 
man's  soul  for  real  pleasures  and  for  lasting 
joy.  If  we  educate  efficiently  on  a  system 
in  which  there  is  no  place  for  faith  in  God, 
and  the  vision  of  eternal  hfe,  we  strengthen 
the  force  of  infinite  desire,  and  make  more 
certain  the  destruction  of  our  false  and 
superficial  civilisation. 

In  the  great  outbreaks  and  upheavals  of 
the  future  it  will  inevitably  be  the  most 
highly  educated  and  efficient  peoples  that 
will  take  the  lead,  if  education  and  efficiency 
exclude  God  and  Faith  in  Eternal  Life. 
Education  only  feeds  the  cancer  of  the  buried 
complex  unless  it  supplies  an  outlet  for  it 
through  faith  in  a  life  beyond  the  power  of 
death,  and  a  destiny  of  greater  glory  than 
this  world  can  ever  give.  The  popular 
notion    that    behef    in    Immortality    is    an 


228  Lies  I 

ancient  superstition  that  is  dying  out  is  a 
topsy-turvy  notion  historically.  History  shows 
that  man's  belief  in  a  fuller  life  beyond  the 
grave  is  not  an  ancient  belief  that  is  d3dng, 
but  a  new  belief  that  is  fighting  for  its  life. 
The  ancients  had  but  a  vague  and  shadowy 
conception  of  another  life,  where  they  had 
any  conception  at  all ;  that  world  was  a  world 
of  ghosts  where  phantoms  lived  and  mourned. 
The  conception  of  life's  golden  age  as  lying 
out  beyond  the  grave  came  to  man  as  his 
peculiarly  human  powers  grew  and  he  became 
more  fully  conscious  of  himself  as  an  indi- 
vidual. As  we  develop  the  individual  and 
make  him  more  fully  man,  we  force  him  more 
and  more  to  face  the  great  dilemma — either 
immortahty  or  despair.  If  in  this  life  only 
we  have  hope  in  Christ  we  are  of  all  men 
most  miserable. 

Our  present-day  politics  and  politicians 
are  largely  futile  because  they  have  a  false 
perspective,  and  drive  men  on  to  the  horns  of 
that  dilemma.  If  Christ  became  a  member 
of  Parliament  He  would  at  first  be  popular 
and  then  puzzling,  and  finally  He  would  be 
persecuted.     His  genius  would  at  first  carry 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  229 

all  before  it.  All  men  would  wonder  at  His 
knowledge  of  human  nature,  His  wisdom,  and 
His  utter  disinterestedness.  But  sooner  or 
later  He  would  seem  as  mad  to  all  parties 
as  all  parties  would  seem  mad  to  Him.  In 
the  end  one  paper  would  denounce  Him  as  a 
demagogue,  another  would  declare  that  He 
was  no  true  friend  of  the  people — a  time- 
server  and  a  visionary,  and  a  third  would 
discover  that  He  had  a  German  origin.  He 
would  seem  to  our  generation  both  puzzling 
and  perverse,  because  He  could  not  help  being 
profound.  The  vision  of  eternal  life  alters 
all  your  distances,  and  changes  your  per- 
spective. To  Christ  many  of  our  great 
questions  would  be  small,  and  many  things 
which  have  not  become  questions  yet  would 
to  Him  be  monstrous  evils.  He  would  weary 
us  who  pride  ourselves  on  our  practicality 
with  His  insistence  on  the  supreme  value  of 
the  soul,  and  the  spiritual  issues  that  lie 
behind  all  material  questions.  He  would  be 
keener  on  our  hearts  than  our  houses,  and 
yet  keener  than  most  on  our  houses.  He 
would  talk  more  of  our  minds  than  our 
millions,  and  yet  would  be  intensely  interested 


230  Lies  I 

in  millions.  He  could  not  help  seeing  things 
against  an  infinite  background.  It  is  pre- 
cisely that  infinite  background  which  we 
must  have  if  civilisation  is  to  be  saved  ;  a 
firm  faith  in  life  eternal  is  a  necessity  of  real 
human  progress. 

How  is  that  faith  to  be  developed  ? 

Christ  never  set  out  to  give  what  are 
called  evidences  of  eternal  life.  He  never  set 
out  to  prove  it  as  men  prove  a  mathematical 
or  a  scientific  proposition.  He  did  not  apply 
the  scientific  method  to  this  question,  because 
the  scientific  method  is  not  applicable.  You 
cannot  prove  that  life  is  eternal  any  more 
than  you  can  prove  that  grass  is  green  or 
lemons  yellow.  A  man  either  knows  that 
through  his  vision,  or  does  not  know  it 
because  he  is  blind,  or  half  knows  it  because 
he  is  defective.  You  cannot  alter  the  grass 
to  suit  the  vision,  you  must  alter  the  vision 
to  suit  the  grass.  It  is  an  elemental  primary 
fact,  and  incapable  of  proof.  On  another 
plane  this  is  so  with  eternal  life.  You  either 
know  that  life  is  eternal  through  your 
spiritual  vision,  or  don't  know  it  because 
you  are  blind,  or  know  it  dimly  because  you 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  231 

are  defective.  You  cannot  alter  the  fact  to 
suit  your  spiritual  vision,  you  must  develop 
your  spiritual  vision  to  grasp  the  fact.  It 
is  this  development  of  the  spiritual  vision 
that  Christ  is  always  pleading  for  with  men. 
Pleading  with  them  to  pray  continually,  to 
commune  with  God,  to  worship  God.  To 
Him  these  things  are  necessities  for  all  men, 
not  luxuries  for  a  few.  It  is  impossible  to 
regard  Christ  as  merely  a  teacher  of  morals  ; 
you  cannot,  without  tearing  His  character  to 
pieces  and  entirely  altering  the  emphasis  of 
His  teaching,  disregard  His  continual  in- 
sistence upon  prayer,  worship,  and  constant 
communion  with  God  as  vital  necessities  of  a 
fully  human  life.  He  is  always  calling  men 
to  put  God  first,  to  train  their  eyes  that  they 
may  see,  and  their  ears  that  they  may  hear 
the  hidden  things  of  God.  It  is  by  following 
His  example  and  advice  and  developing  our 
powers  of  prayer  and  spiritual  communion 
that  we  attain  to  the  real  living  conviction 
of  eternal  hfe  which  we  need.  Moral 
lectures,  ethical  exhortations,  and  instruction 
in  that  mysterious  subject  called  '*  civics  " 
are    equally    futile    for    this    purpose.     You 


232  Lies  I 

need  spiritual  exercise  to  develop  the 
spiritual  sense^and  the  spiritual  sense  is 
as  necessary  as  sight  or  hearing  for  a  fully 
human  life. 

Spiritualistic  seances  and  the  investiga- 
tions of  the  Society  for  Psychic  Research  are 
also  futile  as  substitutes  for  rehgious  devo- 
tion. I  do  not  want  to  deny  that  the  study  of 
psychic  phenomena  is  a  perfectly  legitimate 
study,  and  the  evidence  accumulated  by 
research  on  these  lines  perfectly  legitimate 
evidence  for  the  survival  of  the  human  per- 
sonaUty  after  death.  If,  after  the  evidence 
so  obtained  has  been  carefully  sifted,  fraud 
carefully  guarded  against  and  unintentional 
errors  eliminated,  it  seems  to  justify  a 
conclusion,  that  conclusion  would  be  as 
valid  as  any  other  scientific  conclusion.  But 
the  demonstration  of  the  fact  of  human 
survival,  and  the  possibility  of  communica- 
tion, would  not  in  itself  give  to  men  the 
conviction  of  eternal  life.  The  study  of  this 
evidence  seems  as  a  matter  of  fact  to  un- 
balance some  people's  minds,  and  when  it 
does  not  do  that,  it  leads  to  a  peculiarly 
debased  and  degraded  form  of  that  ''  other- 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  233 

worldliness "  with  which  Christianity  has 
from  time  to  time  been  justly  charged.  It 
occupies  men's  minds  and  concentrates  their 
attention  upon  another  world  and  upon 
attempts  to  communicate  with  it,  when  their 
attention  ought  to  be  fixed  on  living  in  this 
world  and  loving  their  fellow-men.  Other- 
worldliness  is  always  essentially  wrong. 
Giving  up  earth  as  a  bad  job,  and  endeavour- 
ing to  reach  beyond  with  a  jump  is  a  subtle 
species  of  blasphemy.  All  other-worldliness 
is  wrong ;  but  I  would  much  rather  have 
mediaeval  and  monastic  other-worldliness 
than  the  modem  spirituaHst  version  of  it. 
I  would  rather  repeat  continual  offices  than 
turn  continual  tables,  and  keep  nightly  vigils 
than  hold  nightly  seances.  I  would  much 
rather  have  a  monk  than  a  medium.  The 
point  is  that  it  is  not  ''  other-worldliness  "  we 
need,  but  wider-worldliness — and  that  wider- 
worldliness  is  what  conviction  of  eternal  life 
brings  to  a  man.  This  world  does  not  fade 
away,  it  grows  wider  and  is  included  in 
eternity.  Eternal  Hfe  is  not  hereafter  only, 
it  is  here  and  now.  The  vision  of  eternal 
life  makes  men  see  Hfe  as  one.     They  only 


234  -^^^^  •' 

know  one  world,  and  that  the  eternal  world  ; 
they  only  have  one  life,  and  that  eternal  life. 
Behind  the  material  they  discern  the  spiritual. 
All  the  earth  becomes  a  sacrament.  Every 
hill-top  speaks  of  heaven,  and  every  flower 
flames  with  God.  Men  with  the  vision  are 
not  indifferent  to  this  world,  but  are  keen 
to  make  it  perfect  with  a  keenness  that  no 
worldly  man  could  ever  know.  They  detest 
slums  because  they  poison  eternal  spirits ; 
they  loathe  all  waste  of  human  life  be- 
cause all  human  life  is  of  infinite  and 
eternal  worth.  They  are  the  true  democrats, 
who  cannot  help  seeing  all  men  as  in  the 
true  sense  equal,  because  they  see  all  men  as 
eternal. 

The  men  of  the  vision  cannot  think  of 
privilege  except  as  another  name  for  re- 
sponsibility ;  wealth  to  them  means  work 
for  others,  and  position  a  chance  of  wider 
service.  The  man-made  barriers  'twixt  man 
and  man  that  spht  us  into  sections  they  look 
at  with  far-seeing  eyes,  and  find  to  be  absurd. 
When  you  think  of  men  as  sons  of  God,  you 
do  not  mind  much  whether  they  are  princes 
or  porters,  publicans  or  prime  ministers,  the 


Lies  and  the  Life  Eternal  235 

only  thing  that  matters  is  that  they  are  men. 
These  men  neither  envy  the  rich  nor  patronise 
the  poor,  and  they  do  not  waste  their  time 
on  hatred.  To  them  a  snob  is,  not  so  much 
a  sinner,  as  a  fool  who  is  not  really  living, 
but  playing  blind  man's  buff — groping  round 
the  world  and  missing  half  his  friends  be- 
cause he  cannot  see  a  man  behind  a  suit  of 
clothes. 

The  men  of  the  vision  are  the  only  sort 
that  can  build  the  great  Democracy  where 
there  shall  be  no  waste  of  human  souls  ;  they 
see  the  Truth,  that  men  are  one,  one  family, 
and  every  child  of  equal  value  in  God's  sight. 
They  have  the  Truth  in  them  and  they  can 
make  it  felt.  By  the  power  of  that  vision, 
and  in  the  Hght  of  that  Truth,  all  lies  can 
be  destroyed  and  Truth  can  have  its  way. 
Apart  from  that  vision  I  see  no  hope — only  a 
repetition  of  the  dreary  vicious  circles  of  the 
past.  In  the  light  of  the  eternal  life  I  can 
see  the  New  London,  the  New  Birmingham, 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  and  Leeds,  coming 
down  from  heaven  prepared  as  a  bride 
adorned  for  her  husband.  Without  that  light 
I  hsten  only  to  a  roaring  like  the  roaring  of 


236  Lies  I 

the  sea — and  when  I  look  unto  the  land  I 
behold  darkness  and  sorrow,  and  the  Ught  is 
darkened  in  the  heavens  thereof. 


THE   END 


Made  and  Printed  in  Great  Britain. 
Hazell,  Watson  &  Viney,  Ld.,  London  and  A  ylesbury. 


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